- By Kamal Kumar
- Fri, 06 Dec 2024 11:39 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
As the Syrian rebel forces rapidly advance towards Damascus, reports suggest that President Bashar al-Assad might have fled the crumbling nation. The three-fold jolt on Friday shook the Iran-Russia-backed ruler on Friday. While Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led rebel forces took the city of Homs, Kurdish fighters gained the control of eastern desert. Adding to Assad's misery, locals in the South took to the streets to protest against his rule, indicating a popular uprising along with militia wars.
With Homs under their rule, the Sunni Islamist forces led by HTS now control the important route from Damascus to the sea, making it a huge strategic blow to both Assad and Russia, which has naval and air bases in close vicinity.
In a simultaneous blow to Assad, a US-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters seized Deir el-Zor, the government’s key stronghold in eastern Syria’s vast desert, three Syrian sources told news agency Reuters on Friday. This marks the third significant city to slip from Assad's control within a week, following Aleppo and Hama in the northwest and central regions.
Meanwhile, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which remained at its all-time low in numbers and armed power amid war with Israel, mobilised small numbers of supervising forces in Syria to help the Assad government in tackling the rebels.
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Druze militias, which were supporting the Russia-backed ruler earlier, are posing a fresh challenge to his government in the renewed Syrian war. Earlier today, at least three people were killed in clashes between Druze militias and security forces in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Friday, two witnesses and a local activist said, as reported by Reuters.
"People are seeing what is happening in the rest of Syria as liberation of Syria and a chance to bring down the regime," activist Ryan Marouf, editor of Suwayda 24, a website that covers the province, said.