BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian military withdrew from a lot of southern Syria on Saturday, leaving extra areas of the nation, together with two provincial capitals, underneath the management of opposition fighters, the navy and an opposition conflict monitor mentioned.
The redeployment away from the provinces of Daraa and Sweida got here as Syria’s navy despatched giant numbers of reinforcements to defend the important thing central metropolis of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as insurgents approached its outskirts.
The speedy advances by insurgents is a shocking reversal of fortunes for Syria’s President Bashar Assad, who seems to be largely on his personal, with erstwhile allies preoccupied with different conflicts.
His chief worldwide backer, Russia, is busy with its conflict in Ukraine, and Lebanon’s highly effective Hezbollah, which at one level despatched hundreds of fighters to shore up his forces, has been weakened by a yearlong battle with Israel. Iran, in the meantime, has seen its proxies throughout the area degraded by Israeli common airstrikes.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syria conflict monitor, reported Saturday that Iran’s navy advisers have began leaving Syria. He added that Iran-backed fighters in jap Syria, primarily from Afghanistan and Pakistan, have withdrawn into central Syria.
The shock offensive started Nov. 27 led by the jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, throughout which gunmen captured the northern metropolis of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central metropolis of Hama, the nation’s fourth largest metropolis. The group has its origins in al-Qaida and is taken into account a terrorist group by the U.S. and the United Nations.
HTS chief Abu Mohammed al-Golani advised CNN in an unique interview Thursday from Syria that the goal of the offensive is to overthrow Assad’s authorities.
The Britain-based Observatory mentioned Syrian troops have withdrawn from a lot of the 2 southern provinces and are sending reinforcements to Homs, the place a battle is looming. If the insurgents seize Homs, they might minimize the hyperlink between Damascus, Assad’s seat of energy, and the coastal area the place the president enjoys vast help.
The Syrian military mentioned in a press release Saturday that it has carried out redeployment and repositioning in Sweida and Daraa after its checkpoints got here underneath assault by “terrorists.” The military mentioned it’s establishing a “strong and coherent defensive and security belt in the area,” apparently to defend Damascus from the south.
Since Syria’s battle broke out in March 2011, the Syrian authorities has been referring to opposition gunmen as terrorists.
Within the gas-rich nation of Qatar, the international ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey had been scheduled to satisfy to debate the state of affairs in Syria. Turkey is a primary backer of the rebels searching for to overthrow Assad.
Qatar’s high diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticized Assad for failing to reap the benefits of the lull in combating in recent times to handle the nation’s underlying issues. “Assad didn’t seize this opportunity to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people,” he mentioned.
Sheikh Mohammed mentioned he was stunned by how rapidly the rebels have superior and mentioned there’s a actual risk to Syria’s “territorial integrity.” He mentioned the conflict might “damage and destroy what is left if there is no sense of urgency” to start out a political course of.
After the autumn of the cities of Daraa and Sweida early Saturday, Syrian authorities forces stay in command of 5 provincial capitals — Damascus, Homs and Quneitra, in addition to Latakia and Tartus on the Mediterranean value.
Tartus is residence to the one Russian naval base exterior the previous Soviet Union whereas Latakia is residence to a significant Russian air base.
On Friday, U.S.-backed fighters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces captured vast elements of the jap province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq in addition to the provincial capital that carries the identical identify. The seize of areas in Deir el-Zour is a blow to Iran’s affect within the area as the realm is the gateway to the hall linking the Mediterranean to Iran, a provide line for Iran-backed fighters, together with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
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With the seize of a primary border crossing with Iraq by the SDF and after opposition fighters took management of the Naseeb border crossing to Jordan in southern Syria, the Syrian authorities’s solely gateway to the skin world is the Masnaa border crossing with Lebanon.
Related Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.
