Syria: After Aleppo and Hama, rebels now eye Homs; thousands flee city as Assad forces struggle

After capturing Aleppo and Hama, Syrian opposition forces are eyeing to capture the city of Homs in central Syria.

Homs is the crossroads city that links Syrian capital Damascus with the country’s north and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime’s stronghold in the coastal areas in the west. The control of Homs would allow the opposition forces to move towards both Damascus as well as the coastal west.

For the first time in four years , Syrian opposition forces mounted an offensive last week that took the Assad’s regime as well as observers by surprise. By Saturday, they had captured Aleppo and then they captured Hama in central Syria on Thursday .

Since 2020, the Syrian Civil War (2011-) had essentially been frozen when opposition-supporter Turkey and regime-supporter Russia reached a ceasefire. Even though Assad’s regime had lost control of most the country in the initial years of the war, Russia’s direct intervention in 2015 turned the tides of the war in the regime’s favour that eventually clawed back to control most of the country. Now years of gains have been eroded in the surprise offensive.

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Thousands flee Homs amid opposition’s march

As Syrian opposition forces pushed southward, thousands of people fled the city for safety, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

As opposition forces have closed in, they have fled towards the coastal areas in the west, which has long been the stronghold of Assad. Russia's prized military bases are also based along the Mediterranean coast in the west from where Russian air force has sought to bomb opposition forces in a bid to aid Assad’s regime.

Even though Russia has joined Assad’s regime in battling opposition forces along with Iran-backed armed groups, they are not in a position to support Assad as they once did because they are distracted in their conflicts with Ukraine and Israel.

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A resident of the coastal area in the west told Reuters that thousands of people had begun arriving there from Homs amid advance of opposition forces.

The battle for Homs

In a desperate bid to halt opposition forces’ march to Homs, Russian forces on Thursday night destroyed a major bridge to Homs.

A Syrian army officer told Reuters that Russian forces bombed the Rustan Bridge along the major M5 highway to prevent opposition forces from using this main route to enter Homs.

The officer said that Assad’s regime forces were working to strengthen positions around Homs with fresh reinforcements.

Homs is around 160 kilometres from Damascus and Hama, the city that opposition forces captured on Thursday, is around 240 kms away.

The Syrian opposition leader, Mohammed al-Jolani, has made it clear that toppling Assad’s regime is the objective.

“When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal,” said Jolani in an interview with CNN.

Separately, in a video circulated by the opposition forces, Jolana was seen saying: “The people of Homs, prepare yourselves. The people of Damascus, the people of Dara’a, the people of Deir al Zour. Victory for all, God willing.”