Syrian government forces have lost control of Daraa city, a war monitor said, in another stunning blow for President Bashar al-Assad’s rule after rebels wrested other key cities from his grip.
Daraa was dubbed “the cradle of the revolution” early in Syria’s civil war, after activists accused the government of detaining and torturing a group of boys for scribbling anti-Assad graffiti on their school walls in 2011.
While Aleppo and Hama, the two other main cities taken from government control in recent days, fell to an Islamist-led rebel alliance, Daraa was taken by local armed groups, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Local factions have taken control of more areas in Daraa province, including Daraa city... they now control more than 90 percent of the province, as regime forces successively pulled out,” the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources around Syria, said late Friday.
Despite a truce brokered by Assad ally Russia, the province has been plagued by unrest in recent years, with frequent attacks, clashes and assassinations. Syria’s civil war, which began with Assad’s crackdown on democracy protests, has killed more than 500,000 people and forced more than half the population to flee their homes.
Never in the war had Assad’s forces lost control of so many key cities in such a short space of time. Since a rebel alliance led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched its offensive on November 27, the government has lost second city Aleppo and subsequently Hama in central Syria.
The rebels were on Friday at the gates of Homs, Syria’s third city, as the government pulled out its troops from Deir Ezzor in the east.
In an interview published on Friday, the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said the aim of the offensive was to overthrow Assad.
“When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal,” Jolani told CNN.
HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has sought to soften its image in recent years. As the army and its Iran-backed militia allies pulled out of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, Kurdish-led forces said they crossed the Euphrates river and took control of the territory that had been vacated.
Meanwhile, Syria’s military withdrew Saturday from positions in the Damascus countryside roughly 10 kilometres (six miles) from the capital, a war monitor said, as rebel forces press their offensive on government-held territories.
"Regime forces pulled out of towns in the southwestern Damascus countryside, 10 kilometres from the capital Damascus, which have been seized by local fighters," said Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
On the other hand, the top diplomats from Iran, Turkey and Russia met in Qatar on Saturday for talks on Syria where rebel forces have taken parts of the country in a lightning offensive.
A foreign ministry statement said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Russian and Turkish counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Hakan Fidan, for talks on Syria in the Qatari capital Doha.
A source close to Lebanon's Hezbollah said Saturday the group sent 2,000 fighters into Syria near the border, as its ally Damascus reels from a rebel offensive that has seized major cities in recent days.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
