By Maya Gebeily, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Parisa Hafezi
BEIRUT/AMMAN/DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will send missiles, drones and more advisers to Syria, a senior Iranian official said on Friday as rebel forces advanced on the central city of Homs and the Kurds captured the largest city on the flank east, mocking the President. Bashar al-Assad's grip on power.
If the Islamist rebels capture Homs in their new offensive, it will cut off the capital Damascus from the coast, a long-held stronghold of Assad's Alawite minority and home to his navy and air base. Russian friends.
In another setback for Assad, a US-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters has taken over Deri el-Zor, the government's main stronghold in the country's vast desert east, three said. Syrian sources told Reuters on Friday.
It was the third major city, after Aleppo and Hama in the northwest and center, to fall out of Assad's control in a week.
Adding to the pressure, an Iraqi security source said that the Syrian Kurds were also advancing towards the town of Albukamal on Syria's eastern border with Iraq and that they could take it within the next 24 hours.
After years trapped behind frozen front lines, rebel forces have burst out of their base in northwestern Idlib to make the fastest battlefield advance on either side since the street uprising against Assad into the civil war 13 years ago.
Assad gained control of most of Syria after liberating key allies – Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah group. But recently everything has been undermined and sidelined by another crisis, giving Sunni Muslim militants a window to fight back.
The head of the Syrian group that led the sweeping attack told CNN that his group – a former Al-Qaeda affiliate now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – aimed to “raise Syria ” and bring home Syrian refugees from Lebanon and Europe. .
This was Abu Mohammed Al-Golani's first interview since his group began capturing land from Assad's forces on November 27.
HTS broke away from Al-Qaeda in 2016, saying it poses no threat to the West and has spent years trying to balance its image, presenting itself as a viable alternative to authoritarian rule. 54 years of the Assad family.
STORY OFFICER
The rebel sweep has shocked the region and emboldened other Assad opponents. Syrian rebel leader Hassan Abdul Ghany urged top army officers to defect, in a video statement broadcast on Friday.
Jordan has closed its only passenger and commercial crossing with Syria, the interior ministry said on Friday.
Armed groups have been firing on the border between Syria in Nassib and Jordan, a Syrian military source told Reuters.
Iran has been focused on escalating tensions with its arch-enemy Israel since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
“It seems that Tehran will have to send military equipment, missiles and drones to Syria…Tehran has taken all necessary steps to increase the number of military advisers in Syria and deploy forces,” said a senior Iranian official spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Now, Tehran is providing intelligence and satellite support to Syria.
The Israeli military said it was reinforcing its air and ground forces in the Golan Heights in southwestern Syria occupied by Israel and that they were ready for any eventuality.
Meanwhile, Iran-backed Hezbollah sent a small number of “command forces” from Lebanon to Syria overnight to prevent anti-government fighters from capturing Homs, two senior security sources said. Lebanon to Reuters.
But Israel has severely weakened Hezbollah in fighting in Lebanon this year, assassinating its top officials and destroying its military infrastructure.
HTS rebels said they had also taken over the towns of Talbisa and Rstan, bringing them within miles (km) of Homs.
The Syrian military said there was no truth to reports that it had withdrawn from Homs, saying in a statement that it had been installed on “stable and strong defensive lines” there.
A resident of Homs said earlier that the offices of Syria's main security branches there had been emptied, with members leaving the city.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said thousands of people had started fleeing from Homs on Thursday night towards the government strongholds of Latakia and Tartus.
A resident on the shore said that thousands of people had started arriving there from Homs, fearing the rapid advance of the rebels.
Wasim Marouh, a Homs resident who decided not to leave, said most of its main commercial streets were largely empty as anti-government militia groups monitor the area.
ISLAMIC STATE
In another alarming development for Assad, the head of the US-backed Syrian Kurdish force said the radical Islamic State group, which has waged an insurgency across swathes of Iraq and Syria before the defeat of a coalition led by the USA in 2017, now. take control of some areas in eastern Syria.
“As a result of the recent developments, there is more movement by Islamic State mercenaries in the Syrian desert, in the south and west of Deir Al-Zor and al-Raqqa countryside,” Mazloum Abdi told reporters -statement, referring to areas in eastern Syria.
Rebels led by HTS have sought to capitalize on their quick takeover of Aleppo in the north and Hama in west-central Syria by pushing on to Homs, another 40 km (24 miles) south.
A rebel operations room urged Homs residents in an online post to rise up, saying: “Your time has come.”
Russian bombing overnight destroyed the Rastan bridge on the M5 highway, the main route to Homs, to prevent rebels from using it to advance, a Syrian military official told Reuters.
Government forces were bringing reinforcements to positions around Homs, he said.
