Syrian opposition groups say they have started to surround the capital Damascus, with some fighters entering its southern suburbs.
The armed groups advanced toward central Damascus after capturing the provincial centre of Quneitra in the country’s southwest, local sources said.
Reports say the Syrian army has withdrawn from much of the southern region, but the defence ministry denied those claims. It also said that Bashar Al Assad has not fled the capital.
Meanwhile, Daraa-based opposition forces said earlier today that they seized control of the city, the fourth strategic loss for President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in a week.
Daraa was dubbed “the cradle of the revolution” early in Syria’s war as government repression of protests failed to quell the people’s anger over the detention and torture of a group of boys for scribbling anti-Assad graffiti on their school walls in 2011.
It seems that Syrians, seeing that the government is losing control across the country, are now rising up and going against the government.
They are taking over state facilities and government buildings and toppling the statues that have represented that dynasty, particularly now, President al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, have had their statues toppled.
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In another development, U.S.-backed anti-regime groups began expanding to north and towards Damascus from southern Syria.
The Free Syrian Army stationed in southern Syria near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders began expanding both to the north and towards Damascus, local sources said on Saturday.
The group’s advances began on Nov. 27 when Assad regime forces quickly lost ground against anti-regime forces in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, and Homs, handing over the areas they controlled in the country’s east to the PKK/YPG group.
The U.S.-backed anti-regime group advanced northward from its deployment point on the Iraq-Jordan border, taking control of the Palmyra district before turning westward towards Damascus.
The Free Syrian Army took the Amour and Hamad Mountains, the T2 oil field, and the Tibas, Rezuz, and Qasr al-Hayr settlements from regime forces in the north and west.
Clashes between Syrian regime forces and anti-regime groups broke out on Nov. 27 in Aleppo’s western countryside.
By Nov. 30, the opposition forces had taken control of most of Aleppo’s city centre and established dominance across Idlib province.
On Dec. 1, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army launched Operation Dawn of Freedom against the PKK/YPG terror group in the Tel Rifaat district of Aleppo’s countryside, liberating the area from terrorist elements.
Anti-regime forces captured Hama on Thursday and continued their advance on Friday, seizing Rastan and Talbiseh districts in Homs province.
