Syrian rebels seize another key city

Syrian rebel forces said early on Saturday they had taken control of the southern city of Daraa, near Jordan, after reaching a deal to give army officials safe passage to the capital Damascus for the army’s orderly withdrawal.

Taking control of Daraa city from Syrian government forces is another stunning blow for President Bashar al-Assad’s rule after rebels wrested other key cities from his grip.

Daraa was dubbed “the cradle of the revolution” early in Syria’s civil war, after activists accused the government of detaining and torturing a group of boys for scribbling anti-Assad graffiti on their school walls in 2011.

While Aleppo and Hama, the two other main cities taken from government control in recent days, fell to an Islamist-led rebel alliance, Daraa fell to local armed groups, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“Local factions have taken control of more areas in Daraa province, including Daraa city... they now control more than 90 percent of the province, as regime forces successively pulled out,” the Britain-based Observatory said late Friday, which relies on a network of sources around Syria.

Daraa province borders Jordan.

Despite a truce brokered by Assad ally Russia, it has been plagued by unrest in recent years, with frequent attacks, clashes and assassinations.

Syria’s civil war, which began with Assad’s crackdown on democracy protests, has killed more than 500,000 people and forced more than half the population to flee their homes.

Never in the war had Assad’s forces lost control of so many key cities in such a short space of time.

Since a rebel alliance led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched its offensive on November 27, the government has lost second city Aleppo and subsequently Hama in central Syria.

The rebels were on Friday at the gates of Homs, Syria’s third city, as the government pulled out its troops from Deir Ezzor in the east to redeploy towards to the centre.

In an interview published on Friday, the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said the aim of the offensive was to overthrow Assad.

“When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal,” Jolani said.

HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has sought to soften its image in recent years.

According to Fabrice Balanche, a lecturer at France’s Lumiere Lyon 2 university, HTS now controls 20,000 square kilometres (more than 7,700 square miles) of territory, nearly seven times as much as it did before the offensive started.

(With inputs from agencies)