Near Homs, Syria, December 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syrian rebels entered suburbs of the key city of Homs on Saturday, sources said, pressing a lightning week-long advance as front lines collapse across the country and government forces battle to save President Bashar al-Assad's 24-year rule.
A Homs resident, and army and rebel sources said the insurgents had breached government defences from the north and east of the city. The Syrian military did not immediately comment on the reports.
Fighting had raged around the north of strategically vital Homs since late on Friday with government forces reinforcing and using intense airstrikes to hammer the rebels.
Insurgents also seized almost the entire southwest within 24 hours and advanced to within 30 km (20 miles) of Damascus as government forces fell back to more defensible positions, rebels said.
Underscoring the possibility of a renewed uprising in the capital itself, protesters in a Damascus suburb tore down a statue of Assad's father, residents said, with video showing them tearing it to pieces.
Assad remains in Damascus, Syria's state news agency said.
Since the rebels' sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled at dizzying speed as insurgents seized a string of major cities and rose up in places where the rebellion had long seemed over.
Besides capturing Aleppo in the north, Hama in the centre and Deir al-Zor in the east, rebels said they have taken southern Quneitra, Deraa and Suweida.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari and Tom Perry in Beirut, Suleiman Khalidi in Amman, Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Alex Cornwell in Manama, Adam Makary and Menna Alaa El Din in Cairo, Andrew Mills in Doha and Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Writing by Angus McDowall, Editing by William Maclean and Tikmothy Heritage)