The Syrian military is scrambling to block the rapid southward advance of antigovernment rebels by trying to cut off the road that connects the major cities of Hama and Homs, the opposition fighters and a war monitor said on Friday.
The Syrian rebels captured the central city of Hama on Thursday after government forces withdrew , prompting the military to try to slow the insurgents by erecting earth berms and carrying out airstrikes on a major highway to the south.
The forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, also have withdrawn from other parts of the country that they control in the northeast and east, according to the monitor. They are reinforcing the most crucial areas for the survival of the Syrian government and its allies, like Homs; the capital, Damascus; and the coastal areas.
Homs lies at the heart of a critical land corridor that runs from Lebanon to Iran, which serves as a pipeline used by Tehran to send weapons, supplies and people to Hezbollah, an armed Lebanese group that is Syria’s most important regional ally.
Throughout the civil war, the Syrian regime has relied on Iran and Hezbollah — in addition to Russia — to fight the rebel efforts to oust it from power.
Despite the effort to stem their advance, the rebels on Friday continued their push south toward the city of Homs, about 30 miles south of Hama, and also captured some towns in the northern countryside, according to the rebels and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor.
The surprise rebel offensive was launched last week by a coalition of opposition groups headed by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, It has dramatically shifted the front lines in Syria’s 13-year-old civil war after a long stalemate.
On Friday, the Syrian military struck rebels and their vehicles both north and south of the city of Hama, which is located in a province that shares the name, with artillery, missiles and airstrikes, assisted by its ally, Russia. Dozens of opposition fighters were killed and wounded, according to Syrian state media.
Over the weekend, the rebels took control of the northern city Aleppo, once a commercial hub and one of the largest cities in the country. The loss of Aleppo and Hama were major defeats for Mr. al-Assad. Losing Homs would be an even more significant blow for both his government and its regional allies.
After withdrawing from Hama on Thursday following several days of fighting, the Syrian military issued an unusual statement explaining its pullback, saying that it was seeking to avoid battles inside the city that would endanger civilians.
But the Assad government has other considerations. Sacrificing Hama will enable the Assad government’s to shift its limited military resources and forces to the areas it regards as more important, at a time when its allies Hezbollah, Iran and Russia are weakened or distracted by their own wars.
Early on Friday, the Israeli military carried out airstrikes on what it said were routes used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons near a Syrian government border crossing on its Lebanese border. The Syrian government said the Israeli strikes hit the bridge connecting the two countries and put it out of service, according to state media.
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