Syrian rebels capture Damascus, saying President Assad has fled

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent

The pace of the rebels’ advance in Syria has been astonishing. They are now fighting to seize the country’s third-largest city, Homs, a strategic hub connecting the capital Damascus to the north and the coast, the heartland of President Bashar Al Assad’s Alawite sect.

But it is not only those fighters, led by the Islamist group HTS, who are making progress. Syrian Kurdish troops have essentially taken control of the east, capturing the main city of Deir el-Zor. Insurgents have also advanced in the south, where they achieved a symbolic victory by capturing Deraa, the birthplace of the anti-government protests in 2011 that were brutally repressed by the regime and led to the civil war.

If Homs falls, Assad is in deep trouble as Damascus, the seat of his power, will be encircled. It may be too late for Assad’s key allies, Russia and Iran, to come to his rescue, as they did in the past. Assad turned the tide of the war with the support of Russia’s formidable air power, Iranian advisers and fighters from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement.

The Syrian military, demoralised, underpaid and exhausted after years of fighting, is unable – and, parts of it, unwilling – to stop the rebels. In some areas, soldiers seem to be defecting or abandoning their positions, contributing to the offensive’s spectacular advance.

Bashar al-Assad has been in power since 2000. Before him, his father, Hafez, ruled for 29 years – and, very much like his son, with an iron fist. The end of the Assad rule may not be a distant reality.