Thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs during the night and morning of December 6 as rebel forces tried to push their lightning offensive against government forces further south.
The militants have already captured the key cities of Aleppo in the north and Hama in the centre, dealing one crushing blow after another to President Bashar al-Assad, nearly 14 years after protests against him began across Syria.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said thousands of people began fleeing towards Syria’s western coastal areas, a government stronghold, on the evening of December 5. A coastal resident reported that thousands of people began arriving there from Homs, fearing a rapid rebel advance.
On the morning of December 6, Israeli air strikes hit two border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh said.
Russian bombing overnight also destroyed the Rustan bridge on the key M5 motorway to prevent rebels from using this main route to the city of Homs, a Syrian army officer told Reuters. He also added:
“At least eight strikes were carried out on the bridge.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in a telephone conversation that the conflict in Syria has entered a “new phase.” He said:
“The Syrian regime at this stage must urgently engage with its own people to reach a comprehensive political solution.”
Naim Qassem, head of Iran’s Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has fought in support of Assad, pledged to “support Syria to thwart aggression against it.”
Hama has been under Syrian government control since the start of the civil war in 2011. Islamists headed towards it three days ago after advancing in Aleppo province in the northwest. The capture of Hama, on the route between Aleppo and Damascus, opens the way to Syria’s third-largest city of Homs – located at a crossroads connecting Syria’s most populous regions.
Anti-government groups, the strongest of which is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched the offensive on November 27. They ploughed into the city of Aleppo, the centre of the province of the same name, by November 30. This is the most serious escalation in the area since 2020.
