Less than 30 km remain to Damascus rebels from the south entered the cities of Ghabaghib and Kanakir, and Syrian troops of the Assadi regime are retreating from Zakiyah, located 20 km from the capital. Homs stands out as the geographic, economic, and military heart of Syria. If the rebels gain control of Homs, it could pave the way for a rapid advance toward Damascus joining the forces from the South, making the city's fate a critical factor in the coming days. Note they do not have to take Damascus, a siege will be enough to let the city surrender. According to Russian war bloggers, Syrian government forces are retreating without fighting.
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Originally Posted by Syrian opposition commander Hassan Abdulghani
Our forces have entered the city of Sanamin, north of Daraa, and declared it liberated, bringing us within 20 km of the southern gate of Damascus.
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Saga how Assad is losing control of Syria when 95.19% of Syrians voted for him in the election!! Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart meeting in Iran right now in order to discuss the future of Syria while Damascus and Homs are getting liberated is Epic. Ukraine, Syria, Abkhazia, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Romania. The Russian master plan to resurrect the empire is falling apart in front of our eyes. Assad asked Turkey to intervene in what was happening, asked for weapons from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Iraq, but was refused. Lavrov dismisses media claims of Russia allegedly withdrawing ships from its Tartus base in Syria, clarifying that "naval exercises are actively underway in the Mediterranean Sea". Must be a regrouping.
Allegedly, Syrian Army soldiers at the Lebanese-Syrian border are abandoning their posts and flee to Lebanon. Russian forces leaving the Hmeimim base in Latakia and evacuating their S-300 and Tor-M1 air defense systems to the port of Tartous.
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"We could see the end of Assad's rule in Syria in the coming hours," a senior US official told Reuters.
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Syrian army positions in rural Damascus are falling apart, one by one. It is going fast. Currently, fighting is raging around Homs, the second most important city after Damascus where President Assad is still in power. The Syrian army is carrying out airstrikes there. This morning, it became clear that Assad's forces have moved out of much of southern Syria to reinforce positions around Homs. This has left the provinces of Daraa and Sweida under rebel control. The authorities of Egypt and Jordan urged Assad to also leave the country and form a government-in-exile. Jordan strongly denies this. The Syrian army is reportedly retreating in the region around the capital Damascus. So says the NGO Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the organisation that monitors Syria's civil war through an informant network. Government forces have withdrawn to Artoz and are thus some 10 kilometres from the capital, it sounds.
According to the NGO, rebels are surrounding several villages in the Damascus area. They also reportedly want to free prisoners from a military prison near the capital. The rebels advancing from the south say themselves that they have begun the encirclement of the capital. They refer to the ‘final phase’ of the encirclement, according to rebel commander Hassan Abdel Ghani. The latter had earlier addressed followers of the various religious strands via messaging service Telegram, assuring that everyone can have confidence in it and should support the uprising. ‘The era of sectarianism and tyranny is over forever,’ he said. The Syrian army denies and says troops ‘present in all zones of rural Damascus’ are not withdrawing. The area in question is Rif Dimashq province. Further north, fighting is taking place near Homs, according to the Observatory. Large reinforcements for government forces are reported, which would halt the rebels' advance there. Russian and Syrian air and artillery attacks killed seven civilians near Homs, the NGO said.
Iraqi authorities have allowed hundreds of Syrian army soldiers to cross the border. They were fleeing fighting with rebels, the French news agency AFP heard from sources in Iraq's security services. The soldiers included wounded people. The Syrian regime's soldiers ‘fled the fighting’ and arrived in Iraq via Al-Qaïm border crossing, a senior security official told AFP. The latter added that wounded people were taken to hospital from the border town in western Iraq. A second security source speaks of nearly 2,000 troops, ‘officers and soldiers’ who crossed the border with Baghdad's permission. The border crossing is on the banks of the Euphrates, amid the large desert area in northern Syria. As the crow flies, the border crossing is some 130 kilometres south of the town of Deir Ezzor.