Assad Regime Increasingly Caught, Syrian Rebels Now Control Daraa City

JAKARTA - Syrian rebels claimed control of the southern city of Daraa on Saturday, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebel sources said the Syrian military had agreed to withdraw from Daraa under a deal that would allow military officials safe passage to the capital Damascus, about 100 km (60 miles) north.

Videos on social media showed rebels riding motorbikes and others mingling with residents in the streets, Reuters reported on Saturday, December 7. People fired shots into the air in the city's main square to celebrate, the videos showed.

There was no immediate comment from the military or Assad's government. Reuters could not independently verify the rebel claim.

With the fall of Daraa, Assad's forces have surrendered four key centers to the rebels in a week.

Daraa, which had a population of more than 100,000 before the civil war began 13 years ago, has symbolic importance as the birthplace of the rebellion.

It is the provincial capital of about 1 million people, bordering Jordan.

The capture of Daraa followed rebels’ claims late on Friday that they had advanced to the edge of the central city of Homs, a key crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean coast.

Capturing Homs would cut off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite sect and its Russian-allied naval and air bases there.

“Our forces have liberated the last village on the outskirts of Homs and are now at its walls,” the Syrian faction leading the offensive said on the Telegram messaging app.

A coalition of rebel factions that includes the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) last called on forces loyal to Assad’s government in Homs to defect.

Ahead of the rebel advance, thousands of people fled Homs for the coastal areas of Latakia and Tartus, a government stronghold, residents and witnesses said.