Syrian rebels claim control of fourth city and advance toward Damascus

Syrian rebels said they’ve seized a key southwestern city close to the border with Jordan and claimed to be closing in on the capital of Damascus as they carried on a lightning-fast offensive that threatens to further destabilize a region already convulsed by war.

“Our forces have begun implementing the final phase of encircling the capital, Damascus,” Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Hassan Abdul Ghani posted on X Saturday.

Ghani followed that post with a subsequent post on X claiming HTS had secured the city centers of Daraa, Sweida, and Quneitra.

“‎The Military Operations Department has completed combing and securing the city centers of Daraa, Sweida, and Quneitra, thus announcing that the centers of the three southern governorates are completely liberated and free of the criminal regime forces,” the post stated.

Video verified by NBC News showed people in Jaramana, a Damascus suburb, tearing down a bust of Hafez Al-Assad, father of president Bashar Al-Assad. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a U.K.-based war monitor, said Saturday that Jaramana was no longer controlled by the Syrian government.

Earlier, HTS said it had “completely liberated” the city of Daraa, a symbolic and strategic victory for the rebels as the place where pro-democracy protests in 2011 sparked the country’s ongoing civil war, while it is also an important crossing on the border.

It is very difficult for independent journalists to operate in Syria and NBC Could not independently verify the rebels’ claims.

On Friday, the monitoring group said that rebels in the south controlled more than 90% of the Deraa region, “including Daraa city.”

Syria’s army, meanwhile, accused HTS of spreading videos claiming that it had taken control of areas in rural Damascus in order to “intimidate” citizens.

In a separate statement, it said that its forces in Daraa had carried out a “repositioning,” and “established a strong and cohesive defensive and security perimeter in that direction.”

If confirmed, the capture of Daraa and advance on the capital would mark the latest development of a sweeping campaign that has dramatically shifted the balance of power in Syria.

In less than two weeks, insurgents led by HTS have captured of Aleppo in the north, as well as the central city of Hama, where government forces were forced out Thursday. 

The rebels’ seizure of Daraa also comes after HTS claimed Friday that it had advanced to the edge of the city of Homs, a key crossroads connecting Damascus to government strongholds on the Mediterranean coast.

“To Our Brave Rebels. You are now at the gates of Homs and Damascus, and the fall of the criminal regime is closer than ever. I renew my advice to you, brothers, to show mercy, kindness, and gentleness to our people in the cities and villages you enter as humble conquerors,” the general command leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa said on Telegram Saturday.

“To the Soldiers and Officers of the Assad Regime, Whoever stays at home, closes their door, and remains silent is safe. Those who announce their defection from the criminal regime, lay down their weapons, and surrender themselves are also safe,” Al-Sharaa said.

Russia and Iran have long supported Assad, with Russia maintaining a military presence including the naval base at Tartus. But both nations’ influence has been weakened by broader regional tensions, including Israel’s war in Gaza and clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Russia’s yearslong war with Ukraine.

H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, told NBC News on a phone call Saturday that it’s “pretty much the end game for Assad” if the rebels take Homs.

“Once they get Homs, then really Damascus is cut off and they’ll all be centered around Damascus and Latakia on the coast.”

If the strategically important municipality of Homs were to fall, it would leave three of the country’s five largest cities in the hands of the forces led by HTS, and no major cities between rebel forces and Damascus.

But Hellyer said there was not yet a definitive outcome to the conflict despite the rebels’ rapid advance.

“It comes down to how much fighting spirit there is left in this rump of the Syrian army,” he added. “How much they feel they can hold out in terms of support from the the Russians and the Iranians, which hasn’t been forthcoming.”

Syria’s army said Saturday morning that it had begun to take control in the provinces of Homs and Hama against what it called “terrorist organizations.”

NBC News could not independently verify its claims.

The collapse of government control in Daraa and the threat to Homs signals a growing vulnerability in Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s hold on power.

Various reports from around the country also suggested that the fall of Aleppo and Hama, as well other cities such as Idlib and numerous rural settlements, has significantly strained Assad’s forces as fighting between government troops and various rebel groups raged around the country.

Pro-Assad soldiers were also battling Kurdish forces who seized government positions in eastern Syria near the cities of Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zour, the Observatory said.

To the south of the country, state media quoted Jordan’s interior ministry as saying that it was closing its Jaber border crossing to all outgoing traffic “due to the security conditions surrounding southern Syria.”

The observatory said Saturday that Syrian government forces had withdrawn from Israeli-controlled Golan Heights for the first time since Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981.

The observatory says more than 820 people, including 111 civilians, have been killed across the country since the rebels began their offensive.