President Bashar al-Assad’s political survival was under threat on Saturday as the Syrian government battled opposition rebellions around the country and, amid protests near the capital, withdrew forces from several of its suburbs, according to war monitoring groups.
The Syrian military denied that its forces had withdrawn from suburbs of the capital, Damascus. Yet Mr. al-Assad’s autocratic government, which had until just over a week ago appeared to have a firm grip over much of the country, now seemed to be facing a possible breach of Damascus.
In addition to the protests, the main rebel offensive had by Saturday reached the outskirts of the strategic city of Homs, only about 100 miles from the seat of Mr. al-Assad’s power in Damascus.
The new uprisings present the gravest challenge in years to Mr. al-Assad. It is unclear what resources he can marshal to defend the rapidly shrinking territory under his control, especially without the help of one of his staunchest allies, Iran, which began to evacuate its military commanders and personnel from Syria on Friday.
Russia, his other important ally through nearly 14 years of civil war, has offered only limited aid.
The British-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces have pulled out of a number of suburbs of the capital, including Moadamia al-Sham and Daraya, and the nearby Mezzeh military airport. That could not immediately be confirmed.
The Observatory also reported that residents of another Damascus suburb, Jaramana, came out in an antigovernment protest, chanting anti-Assad slogans and pulling down a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the current president’s father and predecessor.
Syrian state media reported that Mr. al-Assad was still in Damascus.
Mr. al-Assad’s control in southern and northeastern Syria, too, appeared to be crumbling, with a different coalition of rebel factions capturing much of Daraa Province in the south, and U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces moving into the city of Deir al-Zour in the northeast, according to the Observatory.
The group leading the main offensive said it was preparing to surround the capital, which rebels had attacked early on in the civil war but had not entered since.
“Our forces have begun implementing the final phase of encircling the capital Damascus,” a rebel commander, Lt. Col. Hassan Abdulghani, said on Saturday afternoon in a statement posted on the rebels’ 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,” he said hours later.
Russia and Iran both lent robust military support to Mr. al-Assad over the last decade, proving crucial to his survival through Syria’s civil war.
Joint control with Syrian government Turkish army and Syrian opposition Aleppo Kurdish forces Kurdish advances on Friday Rebels Hama Syrian government IRAQ Homs Rebel advances since November LEB. U.S. military base and Syrian allies Damascus JORDAN Southwestern opposition groups 50 MILES Turkish army and Syrian opposition Joint control with Syrian government TURKEY Aleppo Kurdish forces Raqqa Rebels Latakia Kurdish advances on Friday Deir al-Zour Hama Syrian government Homs IRAQ SYRIA Rebel advances since November LEBANON Damascus 50 MILES U.S. military base and Syrian allies JORDAN Southwestern opposition groups
But late on Friday, Iran moved to start evacuating military commanders and other personnel from Syria, according to Iranian and regional officials.
There were also few signs that another major ally, Russia, was coming to the Syrian government’s aid, beyond some limited airstrikes. Russia intervened in Syria’s civil war in 2015 and helped keep Mr. al-Assad in power by bombarding rebel-held areas into submission. But now the Russian military is stretched thin, with much of its air and ground force tied up in Ukraine.
Analysts said Russia sees little incentive to intervene more forcefully in Syria given the apparent ineffectiveness of Mr. al-Assad’s own forces.
“The Syrians need to be the ones defending Homs,” said Anton Mardasov, a Moscow-based military analyst focusing on the Middle East. “If they are running away, then no one will be fighting in their place.”
Still, the opposition fighters in Homs were facing some of the stiffest resistance they have encountered so far from the 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 the Observatory. There were also clashes between rebels and government forces north of the city, the war monitor 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.
Image Anti-government fighters outside a municipal building in Hama, Syria, on Friday. Credit… Mohammed Al-Rifai/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
With Syria’s allies pulling back, the weakness of the national military has come on full display.
Despite four years of a frozen conflict, analysts say the Assad government has done little to strengthen its military ranks, confident in an ultimate victory over the opposition. Instead, the military ranks remain filled with unwilling and poorly paid conscripts, young men forced into military service.
On Wednesday, Mr. al-Assad ordered salaries for his forces increased by 50 percent. But that was not expected to prevent more soldiers from fleeing the front lines.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Damascus could soon be under threat. A senior State Department official said Mr. al-Assad needed ground forces and that Iran would be hesitant to provide any.
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.
Anton Troianovski contributed reporting.