Syria’s government battles multiple rebel uprisings

President Bashar Assad’s political survival was under threat Saturday as the Syrian government battled opposition rebellions around the country and the strategic city of Homs was breached by the main rebel coalition, according to the fighters and a war monitor.

The rebels then declared early Sunday that they had fully captured the city, not long after the Syrian Defense Ministry denied that rebels had entered Homs, which is only about 100 miles from the seat of Assad’s power in the capital, Damascus. The ministry said in a statement that the situation remained “stable and secure.”

Anti-government protests took place near Damascus on Saturday, and Assad’s forces withdrew from several of its suburbs, according to war-monitoring groups.

The Syrian military denied that its forces had withdrawn from suburbs. Yet 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 the capital.

The new uprisings present the gravest challenge to Assad in years. 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, Assad’s other important ally through nearly 14 years of civil war, has offered only limited aid.

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 be immediately confirmed.

The Observatory also reported that residents of another Damascus suburb, Jaramana, came out in an anti-government protest, chanting anti-Assad slogans and pulling down a statue of Hafez Assad, the current president’s father and predecessor.

Syrian state media reported that Bashar Assad was still in Damascus.

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 el-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 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,” Abdulghani said hours later.

Russia and Iran both lent robust military support to Assad over the past decade, proving crucial to his survival through Syria’s civil war.

But late 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 Russia, another major ally, was coming to the Syrian government’s aid, beyond some limited airstrikes. Russia intervened in Syria’s civil war in 2015 and helped keep 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.

Earlier Saturday, opposition fighters in Homs faced 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 were 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.

But by early Sunday, the rebels and the Observatory said fighters had breached the city.

“Syria is witnessing a historic change,” 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.”

In eastern Syria, government forces in the city of Deir el-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.

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, Assad ordered salaries for his forces increased by 50%. 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 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.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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