Situation comes to a head

Islamists are already advancing on the next city

The situation throughout the country is coming to a head. Large picture: Bodies in Hama

(Bild: AFP , Krone KREATIV)

More and more cities in Syria are falling into rebel hands. After the jihadists' lightning offensive, ruler Bashar al-Assad is facing a decisive battle. The air is getting thinner and thinner for the ruler: Assad's family fled to Russia days ago. The dictator himself is said to still be in the country. On Saturday morning, jihadists captured a town on the Golan near the border with Israel, and in the afternoon they encircled the capital Damascus.

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• More and more cities are falling into rebel hands. Insurgent Islamists have - according to their own statements - captured the town of Quneitra near the border with Israel. Quneitra is located on the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights in the southwest of the country. This was done in order to "strengthen the defense in the area and prepare the armed forces for various scenarios".
• Assad's government troops have withdrawn from the towns located around ten kilometers southwest of Damascus , "which have been captured by local fighters". The first suburbs of the city are said to have already been conquered (see tweet below).

• Assad's wife and their three children are said to have fled to Russia several days ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. His brother-in-law is said to be in the United Arab Emirates.

• Militias loyal to the government are also still stationed in Homs, Syria's third largest city. They are following the war in the country with a network of informants. The towns of Talbiseh and Rastan near Homs have already been captured.

City decisive for victory?
Homs is a crossroads between the capital Damascus, the coastal regions and the north of the country. Around 1.5 million people live there. The city has long been a symbolic scene of resistance in the civil war. "Whoever wins the battle with Homs will rule Syria," says the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel-Rahman.

Islamists announced on Friday evening that they had reached the outskirts of Homs. They called on the Syrian army forces to defect. They also want the inhabitants to rise up and join the revolution. "Your time has come," the group appealed.

• However, al-Assad's government has lost control of the symbolic city of Daraa in the south-west of the country. "Local groups have taken over other areas in Daraa province, including the city of Daraa," reported the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights late on Friday evening.

The situation throughout the country is coming to a head. In the picture: Bodies in Hama

(Bild: AFP )

(Bild: AP)

Asma Assad was born in Britain and has been married to Syria's dictator since 2000. She is now said to have fled to Russia with her children.

(Bild: AFP or licensors)

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Islamist fighters and others now control more than 90 percent of the province of the same name, as the regime forces have gradually withdrawn. Daraa was considered an opposition stronghold at the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

• Meanwhile, the Russian air force, together with Syrian fighter jets, said it had destroyed rebel positions and ammunition depots in the provinces of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo. 200 terrorists and dozens of units of military equipment had been "destroyed", said an air force officer. The information could not be independently verified.

The war in Syria began in 2011 with protests against Assad's government and turned into a civil war with international involvement. The governments of Russia, Iran, Turkey and the USA are pursuing their own interests. On November 27, the war suddenly flared up again with the offensive by the Islamist alliance Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). In a very short space of time, the group captured a lot of territory - in some cases without a fight.

Jihadists in Hama

(Bild: AFP/Bakr Al Kassem)

At the city's military airport

(Bild: AFP/Ghaith Alsayed)

Civilians in Hama

(Bild: AFP/Omar Haj Kadour)

1.5 million refugees feared
Last Sunday, Syria's second largest city Aleppo fell. The alliance is planning to overthrow the Syrian government. According to UN estimates, more than 300,000 civilians have died so far. Around 14 million people have been displaced since the war began in 2011.

The United Nations now expects up to 1.5 million more refugees. "Most of the displaced people are women and children. Our humanitarian aid colleagues tell us that tens of thousands of people have now arrived in north-eastern Syria," said UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric on Friday. Many emergency shelters are already reaching their limits, with people sleeping on the streets or in their cars.

The current fighting is the most intense in four years. A political solution has not been in sight for years.

Signs of life from US reporter twelve years after abduction
There is hope, however, in the case of journalist Austin Tice, who has been kidnapped in Syria for twelve years. His mother is said to have received a sign of life from him. 

Tice, a former US Marine and freelance journalist, was abducted in 2012 while reporting on the uprising against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. He was 31 years old at the time. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the abduction. The US National Security Advisor has become involved in the case.