The city of Daraa, in the south, where the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began, was also under the control of the Syrian rebels on Friday night, according to their own reports. It’s about her fourth city of strategic importance where government forces have been losing control in the last week.

According to sources cited by Reuters, the rebels have reached an agreement with government forces for them to leave, providing them with guarantees of safe passage to the capital Damascus, which is about 100 kilometers away.

Videos released on social media platforms show rebels on motorcycles being greeted with cheers and celebratory gunfire in central city streets.

So far there has been no official reaction from the Syrian army or the Assad government, while Reuters points out that it is unable to verify the rebels’ claim.

The capture of the city of Daraa, whose population exceeded 100,000 before the start of the civil war (2011), is highly symbolic since it is considered the cradle of the rebellion. It is the capital of the province of the same name, which has more than one million inhabitants, on the border with Jordan.

It was preceded by the announcement of the rebels that they had advanced to the outskirts of the city Homs (centrally). If the rebels take Homs, they will cut off the capital Damascus from the coast, where Assad’s Russian allies have a naval and air base. “Our forces have liberated the last community on the outskirts of the city of Homs and are now at its gates,” the jihadist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) said in a message on the Telegram platform.

The rebel alliance, led by the HTS Islamists, has again called on forces loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad to defect.

As the rebel advance continues, thousands of Homs residents are hastily fleeing the city for Lattakia and Tartous.

The US and Jordan are calling on their citizens to leave

The United States on Friday urged American citizens to leave Syria, where rebels led by extremist Islamists have captured several strategic cities as they continue their impressive advance.

“The US State Department urges American citizens to leave Syria immediately while the option of commercial flights is still available,” the State Department’s message posted on social media platforms reads.

Jordan on Friday called on its citizens to leave Syria as soon as possible, expressing concern for their safety due to “developments” in the neighboring country.

A spokesman for the Jordanian foreign ministry said a crisis management team had taken over efforts aimed at removing the Jordanians from Syria and their safe repatriation “as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, Iraq has called on its citizens in Syria who wish to return home to contact the Iraqi embassy in Damascus to register their details.