Syrian civilians flee Homs as opposition forces close in

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Ten of thousands of civilians have been streaming out of the central Syrian city of Homs ahead of a week-old southward advance by Islamist opposition rebels that has its sights on toppling the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Fighters led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, designated a terror group by the United Nations, European Union, United States and many other countries, are reported to be at the northern border of Homs province, around 13 miles from Homs, a strategically key gateway city that connects the capital Damascus with Assad's core base of support on the Levantine coast.

Opposition forces captured the city of Hama on Thursday, five days after seizing control of Aleppo in the north in the biggest challenge to Assad's rule since a 2020 cease-fire ended most of the fighting after an almost decade-long war sparked by a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011.

Despite HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani pledging there would be no reprisals, the U.K.-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory reported a mass exodus of Shia Muslims from the Alawite community to the Syrian coastline ahead of the arrival of the Sunni Muslim fighters.

Al-Jawlani told CNN that their objective was to oust Assad and form a new government and that they reserved the "right to use all available means to achieve that goal."

"When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime," he said.

"The seeds of the regime's defeat have always been within it. The Iranians attempted to revive the regime, buying it time, and later the Russians also tried to prop it up. But the truth remains: this regime is dead."

Government forces have put up little resistance apart from carrying out bombing runs and airstrikes, with the support of the Russian Air Force, to try to halt or slow the advance -- but to little avail.

Ten children and four women were among at least 25 civilians killed Sunday in Russian and Syrian government airstrikes on Idlib and rural Aleppo, according to the White Helmets.

SOHR, which gathers data and information from a network of sources on the ground in Syria, said the number of civilians killed since the fighting broke out last week now stood at 111 with a further 715 fatalities among combatants.

Friday's breakthrough prompted the Russian embassy in Damascus to issue an order urging all Russian citizens to quit the country as soon as possible citing what it called the "difficult military-political situation."

The social media alert advises Russians to "leave the country on commercial flights through existing airports".

Moscow has consistently backed Assad militarily, primarily with air support, and provided political and diplomatic cover, in a long-standing military alliance formed with Assad's father Hafez al-Assad in the 1970s with its only Mediterranean naval base in Tartus and airbases in Palmyra, 100 miles east of Homs, and Latakia on the coast.