Syrian rebels claim control of fourth city and advance towards Damascus

Syrian rebels claimed to have seized a key southwestern city close to the border with Jordan as on Saturday they pressed on with a lightning-fast offensive that threatens to further destabilize a region already convulsed by war.

The capture of Daraa would mark a symbolic and strategic victory for the rebels as the place where pro-democracy protests in 2011 sparked the country’s ongoing civil war, while it is also an important crossing on the border.

“The city of Daraa is completely liberated from the grip of the criminal regime and its militias,” the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) said Friday in a WhatsApp.

NBC Could not independently verify the rebels’ claims, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a U.K.-based war monitor, said Friday that rebels in the south controlled more than 90% of the Deraa region, “including Daraa city.”

Syria’s army, meanwhile, said that its forces in Daraa had carried out a “repositioning,” and “established a strong and cohesive defensive and security perimeter in that direction.”

If the rebels have captured Daraa, it would be the latest in a line of cities to fall in a sweeping campaign that has dramatically shifted the balance of power in Syria.

In less than two weeks, insurgents led by HTS have captured of Aleppo in the north, as well as the central city of Hama, where government forces were forced out Thursday. 

The rebels’ seizure of Daraa also comes after HTS claimed Friday that it had advanced to the edge of the city of Homs, a key crossroads connecting Damascus to government strongholds on the Mediterranean coast.

Russia and Iran have long supported Syrian President Bashad Al-Assad, with Russia maintaining a military presence including the naval base at Tartus. But both nations’ influence has been weakened by broader regional tensions, including Israel’s war in Gaza and clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Russia’s yearslong war with Ukraine.

H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, told NBC News on a phone call Saturday that it’s “pretty much the end game for Assad” if the rebels take Homs.

“Once they get Homs, then really Damascus is cut off and they’ll all be centered around Damascus and Latakia on the coast.”

If the strategically important municipality of Homs were to fall, it would leave three of the country’s five largest cities in the hands of the forces led by HTS, and no major cities between rebel forces and Damascus.

But Hellyer said there was not yet a definitive outcome to the conflict despite the rebels’ rapid advance.

“It comes down to how much fighting spirit there is left in this rump of the Syrian army,” he added. “How much they feel they can hold out in terms of support from the the Russians and the Iranians, which hasn’t been forthcoming.”

Syria’s army said Saturday morning that it had begun to take control in the provinces of Homs and Hama against what it called “terrorist organizations.”

NBC News could not independently verify its claims.

The collapse of government control in Daraa and the threat to Homs signals a growing vulnerability in Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s hold on power.

Various reports from around the country also suggested that the fall of Aleppo and Hama, as well other cities such as Idlib and numerous rural settlements, has significantly strained Assad’s forces as fighting between government troops and various rebel groups raged around the country.

Pro-Assad soldiers were also battling Kurdish forces who seized government positions in eastern Syria near the cities of Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zour, the Observatory said.

To the south of the country, state media quoted Jordan’s interior ministry as saying that it was closing its Jaber border crossing to all outgoing traffic “due to the security conditions surrounding southern Syria.”

The observatory said Saturday that Syrian government forces had withdrawn from Israeli-controlled Golan Heights for the first time since Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981.

The observatory says more than 820 people, including 111 civilians, have been killed across the country since the rebels began their offensive.