President Bashar al-Assad’s political survival was under threat on Saturday as the Syrian government battled opposition rebellions around the country and one of his most important allies, Iran, pared back military support.
By Saturday, the main rebel offensive that began on Nov. 27 had reached the outskirts of the strategic city of Homs, only about 100 miles from the seat of Mr. al-Assad’s power in the capital, Damascus.
The group leading the offensive said it was preparing to surround the capital.
“Our forces have begun implementing the final phase of encircling the capital Damascus,” rebel commander Lt. Col. Hassan Abdulghani said on Saturday afternoon in a statement posted on the rebels’ official Telegram channel. He gave no further details and it was not immediately clear whether any operation on the ground near Damascus was underway.
“We have started sending more reinforcements from the north and south to the axes of the capital Damascus to support our ongoing operations there,” Mr. Abdulghani said hours later.
The new uprisings present the most serious challenge in years to Mr. al-Assad. And it is unclear how long he can hold onto the rapidly shrinking pocket of territory under his control, especially without the help of one of his staunchest allies, Iran.
The government in Tehran has lent robust military support that was crucial to Mr. al-Assad’s survival over the past 13 years of civil war.
But late on Friday, Iran moved to start evacuating military commanders and other personnel from Syria, according to Iranian and regional officials.
Opposition fighters in Homs were facing some of the stiffest resistance they have encountered so far from government forces there, who are trying to block the rapidly moving rebel advance heading toward Damascus.
Syrian government forces are stationed on the outskirts of Homs and were shelling areas newly captured by the rebels, according to a British-based war monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There were also clashes between rebels and government forces north of the city, the Observatory said.
“Syria is witnessing a historic change,” the rebels said in a statement released on their official Telegram channel. “And the people’s message has become clear: There is no place for injustice, no return to tyranny, and the end is closer than Bashar imagines.”
An array of different groups have been taking territory from the government in other parts of the country as well.
Government forces and their Russian allies withdrew from more than a dozen positions in the southwestern province of Quneitra near Israel and rebels took over the positions, according to the Observatory.
In eastern Syria, government forces in the city of Deir al-Zour have nearly entirely withdrawn from their positions, including from the airport and a military base, according to the Observatory. In their place, Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States have sent military reinforcements and released prisoners from a military prison there, the war monitoring group said.
With Syria’s allies pulling back, the weakness of the national military has come on full display.
The U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Friday urged U.S. citizens to leave Syria now.
“The security situation in Syria continues to be volatile and unpredictable with active clashes between armed groups throughout the country,” an Embassy statement said.
The main rebel offensive now approaching Homs is led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. It has taken major cities and large parts of four provinces since launching a surprise offensive last week out of its base in northwestern Syria.
In the southern province of Daraa — where the Syrian uprising against Mr. al-Assad’s authoritarian rule began in 2011 — a separate grouping of local rebel factions has taken control of more than 80 percent of the province after government forces withdrew from checkpoints and military headquarters, according to the Observatory.
And in the neighboring province of Sweida, a different array of local opposition groups attacked police and military checkpoints and took control of the main prison.
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