Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghani has warned the Syrian army and defense minister that his fighters are heading towards Damascus.

“We are heading towards Damascus,” the head of the jihadist group says in a video shared on X.

“We are really warning the remaining regime soldiers and the defense minister that we are coming for you,” he adds.

The rebels are very close to taking control of the city of Homs, the capture of which could prove decisive for the survival of the Assad regime.

Homs, which is only two hours from Damascus, is now the only major city under Assad’s control on the road linking rebel-held areas in northern Syria to the capital, Damascus. Control of the city of about 800,000 would isolate the regime from the Alawite coastal region, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad and key to his power, and from Russian military bases on the Mediterranean coast.

The battle for Homs will also be a crucial test of whether Russia or Iran are willing and able to step in to shore up President Bashar al-Assad’s crumbling defenses. Taking Homs would cut supply routes between Lebanon and Syria, which are important conduits for Hezbollah and its Iranian backers.

If neither Iran nor Hezbollah can prevent this, it shows that they are weak and do not have the ability to prevent what is a real threat to their strategic interests, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Syrian Kurds captured the city of Deir Ezzor

A US-backed rebel alliance led by Syria’s Kurds has captured the country’s largest city in the east, the main border crossing with Iraq, effectively taking control of the eastern Syrian desert in two surprise moves.

Two sources close to the security services based in eastern Syria said that this afternoon the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had captured the city of Deir Ezzor. It is the third city to lose the status of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad within a week.

Omar Abu Laila, an activist with the Deir Ezzor 24 news platform who has contacts in the city, told Reuters that government forces and Iranian-backed Iraqi fighters had withdrawn from Deir Ezzor. Shortly afterwards, the SDF entered the town from the nearby Albu Kamal border crossing, according to two Syrian army sources.

Deir Ezzor has changed hands several times since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. First it was captured by rebels and then, in 2014, by the Islamic State. The Syrian army, backed by Tehran-backed Iraqi militias, recaptured it in 2017 and has held it to this day.

The SDF advance came as Syrian rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former al-Qaeda offshoot, were rapidly moving towards the city of Homs after capturing Aleppo and Hama within a week.

SDF chief Mazloum Abdi earlier told reporters at a news conference in Hasakah that his forces have “channels of communication with HTS,” especially to protect Kurds living in Aleppo. He noted that the SDF has not clashed with HTS but will defend itself if attacked. He also added that they are in contact with both the US and Russia to protect the areas under their control.

Abdi, whose forces have clashed in the past with both the Syrian army and Tehran-backed Iraqi fighters, said he was surprised to see government forces collapse so quickly in the face of the insurgent onslaught.

Jordan closes border with Syria

In the wake of the developments, Jordan announced it was closing its border with Syria as Syrian local fighters and ex-rebels seized one of the main army bases in Daraa province, known as Liwa 52, near the city of Herak as fighting spread to its southern border. country with Jordan, Reuters reported.

They also seized parts of the Nassib border crossing with Jordan near the customs section where dozens of trailers and passenger cars were stranded, the sources added.

Druze militias and security forces clash in Sweida

At least three people were killed in clashes between Druze militias and security forces in the southern Syrian town of Sweida, two witnesses and a local activist said.

They said anti-government fighters also took control of the central police station and the city’s largest prison, hours after hundreds of people demonstrated in a central square calling for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“People see what’s happening in the rest of Syria as a liberation of Syria and an opportunity to bring down the regime,” activist Ryan Marouf, editor of Suwayda 24, a website that covers news from the province, told Reuters.