{"id":117986,"date":"2024-12-07T23:46:18","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T23:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/syrian-rebel-forces-encircle-damascus-office-of-bashar-al-assad-denies-president-has-fled-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2024-12-07T23:46:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T23:46:18","slug":"syrian-rebel-forces-encircle-damascus-office-of-bashar-al-assad-denies-president-has-fled-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/syrian-rebel-forces-encircle-damascus-office-of-bashar-al-assad-denies-president-has-fled-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian rebel forces encircle Damascus; office of Bashar al-Assad denies president has fled – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al Jazeera Mubasher broadcasts live footage of crowds in Homs celebrating city\u2019s capture by rebel forces
Al Jazeera Mubasher<\/strong> has been broadcasting live footage early Sunday of crowds gathered in the city centre of Homs near the historic clock tower celebrating the city\u2019s capture by rebel forces.
Elsewhere in Homs, a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syria\u2019s president Bashar al-Assad, has been torn down by a large crowd.
The city of Homs has witnessed an outpouring of emotions this evening. Many are celebrating what they believe to be the imminent fall of the Assad regime, and others have begun tearing down images of the president. Here is a clip we\u2019ve looped from the centre of Homs, filmed at the Officers\u2019 Club hotel.
It is approaching 1am in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza<\/a> City, and 2am in Damascus.
Syrian rebel commander Hassan <\/strong>Abdul-Ghani<\/strong> said early on Sunday that insurgent forces had \u201cfully liberated\u201d Syria\u2019s central city of Homs, Reuters confirms. Homs is a city of strategic and hugely symbolic importance to the militants and to the opposition as a whole.
Syrian opposition forces have begun to encircle the capital city of Damascus after a lightning offensive brought rebel factions to Bashar al-Assad<\/strong>\u2019s doorstep and led the president\u2019s office to deny he had fled the country.
Government forces have withdrawn from much of the central city of Homs, according to a Syrian opposition war monitor and a pro-government media outlet.
Speaking in Doha, the UN special envoy for Syria<\/a>, Geir Pedersen<\/strong>, said he had secured the joint agreement from the foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Russia to hold urgent talks in Geneva with a date to be agreed upon shortly.
Protesters brought down the statue of the late father of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad<\/strong>, in a main square in Jaramana suburb, nearly 10km from the centre of Damascus.
The UN in Syria denied rumours that it was evacuating all staff from the country, but confirmed that it is \u201cstrategically reducing its footprint by relocating non-critical staff outside the country\u201d.
At least 30 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday, according to local health officials.
Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said on Saturday that Israeli airstrikes had killed six people in the country\u2019s south, just 10 days into a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.
Al Jazeera Mubasher<\/strong> has been broadcasting live footage early Sunday of crowds gathered in the city centre of Homs near the historic clock tower celebrating the city\u2019s capture by rebel forces.
Syrian opposition forces have begun to encircle the capital city of Damascus after a lightning offensive brought rebel factions to Bashar al-Assad\u2019s doorstep and led the president\u2019s office to deny he had already fled the country.<\/strong>
The advance came just a week after Islamist insurgents led by Hay\u2019at Tahrir al-Sham<\/strong> (HTS) retook Aleppo in northern Syria<\/a>, inspiring rebel factions all across the country to rise up against the Syrian army.
Overnight, opposition factions in the southern provinces of Daraa and Suwayda routed government forces and took control over wide swathes of the district. By the afternoon, opposition fighters had entered Daraya, about 5 miles from the centre of the capital. East of Damascus, members of the Free Syrian Army took control over the ancient city of Palmyra.
As rebels advanced from the south and east towards the capital city, forces led by HTS began fighting the Syrian army in the central Syrian city of Homs. Homs is a strategic asset for the Syrian government, linking it to Tartous and Latakia \u2013 provinces where Assad has traditionally enjoyed strong support.
Syrian state media reported that government forces were concentrating on stopping HTS\u2019s advance in Homs, carrying out heavy airstrikes on rebel forces there and sending reinforcements to the central Syrian city.
If Homs were to fall to the rebels, the government would be besieged in Damascus. Opposition forces would be advancing from the north, south and east of the country.
The government in neighbouring Iraq said that 2,000 Syrian soldiers had fled across their border. Al Jazeera showed footage of Syrian tanks and other military vehicles packed with soldiers crossing into Iraq.
Read the latest developments coming from Syria here:<\/em>
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani<\/strong>, leader of HTS, the armed group spearheading the charge against the Assad regime, has urged his fighters to \u201cshow mercy\u201d and \u201cprotect those who surrender\u201d in a video message.
Jolani said his group was in the \u201cfinal moments\u201d before the capture of Homs, adding that it would be a \u201chistoric event\u201d.
It would be the third major city HTS has captured since its fighters fanned out from Idlib at the end of November.
An insurgent commander <\/strong>said that forces spearheaded by Hay\u2019at Tahrir <\/strong>al-Sham are combing Homs after forces loyal to Damascus have fled.<\/strong>
\u201cAn incursion into the neighbourhoods of the city is now underway and we are combing it in preparation for declaring it completely liberated,\u201d said Lt<\/strong> Col Hassan <\/strong>Abdul<\/strong>–Ghani<\/strong> in a statement.
Homs is a city of strategic and hugely symbolic importance to the militants and to the opposition as a whole. The city is a key juncture on the highway that leads to the capital Damascus, connecting it with coastal regions traditionally loyal to Assad.
It also saw some of the fiercest fighting in the early years of Syria\u2019s civil war, when rebels battled to seize neighbourhoods from president Bashar al-Assad\u2019s<\/strong> control.
The loss of Homs would mean that Syria\u2019s major provincial capitals would no longer be controlled by Assad\u2019s regime in Damascus, fundamentally altering his grip on the country his family has ruled for decades.
AP has a quick snap that government forces have withdrawn from much of the central city of Homs, according to a Syrian opposition war monitor and a pro-government media outlet.
More details soon \u2026<\/em>
Syrian rebel commander Hassan <\/strong>Abdul<\/strong>–Ghani said rebel forces <\/strong>had <\/strong>entered the key city of Homs.<\/strong>
Dozens of fighters from Hezbollah\u2019s elite Radwan forces fled the Syrian city of Homs, Reuters reports, after a decision was taken with the Syrian army that the city could no longer be defended.
Syrian opposition media reports that Syrian government forces have withdrawn from Homs city and fighters from Hay\u2019at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have entered the city proper.<\/strong>
Videos showed members of state security branches fleeing their posts in Homs before the rebel advance. Syrian state media did not acknowledge the loss of the city, but said that HTS fighters had entered the city\u2019s suburbs and outlying villages.
If Homs were to fall to rebels, Damascus would be cut off from Tartous and Latakia \u2013 coastal provinces where Bashar al-Assad has historically enjoyed strong support. Rebel forces would then be approaching the country\u2019s capital city from the north from Homs, from the south from Daraa and Suwayda province and from the east from the ancient city of Palmyra.
Here are some of the latest images from inside Syria<\/a> sent to us over the news wires:
Lebanon\u2019s health ministry said on Saturday that Israeli airstrikes had killed six people in the country\u2019s south, just 10 days into a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.<\/strong>
Agence France-Presse reports that both Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been accused of violating the truce, which took effect on 27 November to end a conflict that has left thousands dead in Lebanon and caused mass displacement on both sides.
According to the ministry, \u201cThe Israeli enemy\u2019s airstrike on the town of Beit Lif resulted in the martyrdom of five people and the injury of five others.\u201d It added that a separate drone strike killed one person in the town of Deir Seryan.
Residents of al-Rukban camp rejoiced on Saturday night, after the Syrian army soldiers which had enforced a more than six-year-long siege on the camp abandoned their positions and fled.
Al-Rukban, a camp formed in 2014 in the arid no man\u2019s land between Syria and Jordan, houses about 10,000 refugees who fled the Syrian government\u2019s crackdown on protesters during the country\u2019s revolution. In 2018, the Syrian army and the Jordanian government imposed a siege on the camp, forcing residents to survive on meager amounts of food brought in periodically by a few smugglers.
\u201cI cannot describe the feelings, the words don\u2019t exist. I will be able to return to my village after 14 years,\u201d said Yasser, a resident of the camp originally from a village outside Homs in central Syria speaking under a pseudonym in case government forces returned. Yasser had read a few hours earlier that the Syrian army had been driven out of his home town by rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham<\/strong> (HTS) as part of its attempt to take Homs city.
Pictures sent to the guardian showed Syrian army vehicles, tanks and artillery abandoned where soldiers had fled or had been killed by members of the Free Syrian Army. The Free Syrian Army had patrolled the 55-kilometer demilitarized zone around the camp, supervised by US forces as part of its global coalition to defeat the Islamic State.
On Saturday, the Free Syrian Army had broken out of the demilitarized zone, killing the remaining Syrian army soldiers and capturing the ancient city of Palmyra.
Leaving al-Rukban had been a dream for Yasser and for the other camp residents. Living conditions in the camp had deteriorated in recent years, with food and medical supplies scarce. Syrian soldiers had tightened their siege on the camp, preventing smugglers from reaching the camp. During the last survey of a UN clinic before it closed down in 2020, almost 100% of children under five who went to the clinic were malnourished.
Still, camp residents had to wait before they could return home. The area around the demilitarized zone had been heavily mined, and would take some time to clear.
\u201cWe have to wait around 20 days. I will be counting every second,\u201d Yasser said.
Amid rampant speculation as to the whereabouts of President Bashar al-Assad<\/strong> as the rebel offensive presses ever closer to the capital, Bloomberg\u2019s Sam Dagher reports that the leader of an increasingly shrinking rump state is making a last-ditch effort to hold on to power. This includes indirect diplomatic overtures to the US and President-elect Donald Trump<\/strong>.
One proposal, according to Dagher, conveyed through the United Arab Emirates, offers to sever Syria\u2019s ties with Iran-backed militant groups like Hezbollah \u2013 but only if western powers use their influence to curb the fighting.
Assad has ordered his army to retreat and focus on defending Damascus, effectively relinquishing control of much of the country.
As government forces withdraw from cities and towns across Syria<\/a>, there is a scramble to preserve documents that could be used to hold members of President Bashar al-Assad<\/strong>\u2019s regime to account for crimes against humanity. The Syrian journalist Qusay Noor<\/strong> points to video that appears to show \u201ca huge warehouse of records and reports on citizens in the Political Security Branch\u201d in the city of Suwayda.
This article includes content hosted on embed.bsky.app. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’<\/strong>.
But, according to<\/a> Rim Turkmani<\/strong>, director of the Syria conflict research programme at the London School of Economics: \u201cThe notorious State Security branch of Mukhabarat in Homs has evacuated its building, setting tons of documents \u2013 evidence of their crimes \u2013 ablaze on the roof. Friends in the city witnessed the evacuation from their balconies, and now, many in Homs are overwhelmed with tears of relief and joy.\u201d
\u201cAs opposition forces continue to take control of key sites across Syria \u2013 central offices, prisons, political, intelligence offices, and military branches \u2013 we are witnessing a historical moment in the search for justice!\u201d Rawan Shaif<\/strong> of Amnesty International notes on Bluesky<\/a>. \u201cThese documents are not just pieces of paper \u2013 they are the threads that connect us to the past and to the hope for accountability. They hold the potential to expose the full extent of the crimes committed and the perpetrators behind them. They are essential for holding individuals, command, and perpetrators accountable and ensuring that justice is pursued. But the road ahead requires preservation; these materials, these records and accounts, must be safeguarded, archived, and kept secure. Some incredibly emotional times ahead, but the work is just beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Al Jazeera Mubasher broadcasts live footage of crowds in Homs celebrating city\u2019s capture by rebel forcesAl Jazeera Mubasher has been broadcasting live footage early Sunday of crowds gathered in the city centre of Homs near the historic clock tower celebrating the city\u2019s capture by rebel forces.Elsewhere in Homs, a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the father […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-117986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}