Rebel fighters began to enter the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Sunday, taking them to the brink of a stunning victory as Syrian forces and their leader, President Bashar Assad, appeared to be fleeing.
In just two weeks, a bitter stalemate that had held for years in Syria has been snapped.
After Assad had kept rebel forces at bay for more than a decade with Iranian and Russian military support, a coalition of rebel groups who had been pinned into a small corner of the country’s northwest have swept through the country and its major cities. First the rebels seized Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, then days later blazed through Hama and the strategic city of Homs, en route to the capital.
Amid widespread reports of Syrian government troops fleeing their posts and peeling off uniforms, the sounds of gunfire erupted in Damascus before dawn Sunday, witnesses said.
The main rebel coalition announced on its Telegram channel before dawn that it had entered the capital and taken control of a nearby prison notorious for the use of torture and mass executions during the Syrian civil war. “We bring to the Syrian people the news of the liberation of our prisoners and their unchaining,” the group said.
Two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian force that has been central in supporting Syria’s government, confirmed that rebels had entered the capital and that Syrian forces were withdrawing.
Hours earlier Sunday, the main rebel coalition declared that it had captured the strategic city of Homs, about 100 miles north of Damascus. The Syrian defence ministry had earlier denied that rebels had entered Homs, saying in a statement that the situation remained “stable and secure”.
But the rebels’ offensive has so far swiftly defeated pockets of government defenders in its path.
Assad’s control in southern and northeastern Syria also appeared to be crumbling over the past few days, with a different coalition of rebel factions capturing much of Daraa province in the south, and US-backed Kurdish-led forces moving into the city of Deir el-Zour in the northeast, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group based in Britain.
How Syria’s civil war reignited
After keeping rebel forces at bay for more than a decade with Iranian and Russian military support, Assad faced a surprise offensive launched from the country’s northwest. His government rapidly ceded territory, without effective military defences or the help of one of his staunchest allies, Iran, which began to evacuate its military commanders and personnel from Syria on Friday.
Who are the rebels?
The leader of the Islamist group leading the main rebel coalition said in an interview with The New York Times this past week that the fighters aim to depose Assad. His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, broke ties with al-Qaida in 2016 but is still designated a terrorist organisation by the United States.
Damascus
In the capital Saturday, people had been crowding stores to buy food and cars disappeared from the streets, said a woman there who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern about retribution from the government. She said residents felt a mix of fear, worry and, for those opposed to the government, joy.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.