Syrian rebels claim control of Homs and advance toward Damascus
Syrian rebels claim to have captured a fifth city and are closing in on the capital of Damascus as they carry out a lightning-fast offensive that threatens to further destabilize a region already convulsed by war.
Syrian rebels claim to have captured a fifth city and are closing in on the capital of Damascus as they carry out a lightning-fast offensive that threatens to further destabilize a region already convulsed by war.
The militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) claimed Saturday afternoon ET that it had captured Homs, the largest province in Syria, the borders of which stretch to Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
NBC News has not independently verified the claim.
If the rebel group were to control the Syrian-Lebanese border, it would cut off the road between Damascus and the Syrian coast, significantly weakening the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
HTS’s senior commander, Lt. Col. Hassan Abdul-Ghani, claimed that within 24 hours, HTS had captured the cities of Homs, Sweida, Quneitra and Daraa.
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