Thousands flee as rebel forces push toward Syria's Homs

Thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs overnight into Friday morning, according to a war monitoring group and local residents, as rebel forces advanced further south in their rapid offensive against government troops.

The head of the Syrian faction leading the sweeping assault said that his group - a former Al-Qaeda affiliate now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - aimed to "build Syria" and bring Syrian refugees back home from Lebanon and Europe, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.

It was Abu Mohammed Al-Golani's first interview since his group began seizing territory from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces on Nov. 27. Rebels have captured two major cities so far and are now thrusting toward Homs, a key crossroads city linking the capital Damascus to Assad's coastal heartlands.

After years locked behind frozen front lines, the insurgents have burst out of their northwestern Idlib bastion to reel off the swiftest battlefield advance by either side since a street uprising against Assad mushroomed into civil war 13 years ago.

Assad regained control of most of Syria after his key allies - Russia, Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah group - came to his support. But all have recently been diverted by other crises, giving Syrian Sunni Muslim militants a window to fight back.

Hezbollah sent a small number of "supervising forces" from Lebanon to Syria overnight to help prevent anti-government fighters from seizing the strategic city of Homs, two senior Lebanese security sources told Reuters.

A Syrian military officer and two regional officials close to Tehran also told Reuters that elite forces from Iran-backed Hezbollah had crossed over from Lebanon overnight and had taken up positions in Homs.
Hezbollah has suffered major blows in its war with Israel in Lebanon, which assassinated some of its top leaders.

Meanwhile, the rebels said they had taken over the towns of Talbisa and Rastan, bringing them within miles (km) of Homs.

News.Az