What you need to know about Syria's renewed civil war
Syrian rebel forces were closing in on the country's third-largest city of Homs on Friday, a human rights watchdog said, raising hopes that the country's capital Damascus would be cut off from President Bashar al-Assad's coastal areas. .
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has relied on a network of underground sources to monitor the war since it began in 2011, said rebel forces had advanced to about three kilometers from the city, and that regime forces. they had withdrawn from several nearby towns and villages due to their development.
SOHR said Assad's forces attacked water infrastructure in a town near the highway, but no casualties were reported.
What happened to the war in Syria?
Thousands of people fled the area during the height of the civil war, which had been raging without much progress on either side for years, until the rebels are running wild about two weeks ago.
The rebels took control of another city, Hama, and a week later began an attack in the north of the country. The first major prize in their offensive was taking control of Aleppo last week, Syria's second most populous city.
Their sudden advance has alarmed many observers of the protracted conflict, and SOHR says more than 820 people have been killed since it began, including more than 100 civilians.
Syrian rebels say the goal is still the “overthrow” of Assad
The war in Syria began in 2011 when a democratic uprising to end Assad's long rule quickly escalated into a brutal civil war. Since then, the conflict has killed more than 500,000 people and driven an estimated 12 million from their homes.
The war appeared to have stalled after Assad's government regained control of several cities with the help of Russia and Iran, in addition to Iran's powerful Hezbollah group in Lebanon. Some areas in the north and east of the country remain under the control of Kurdish, US-backed rebel groups. The current offensive, however, has been largely led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS), which has sought to publicly distance itself from its jihadist roots as the regional branch of al Qaeda.
With other conflicts facing Assad's supporters Iran, Russia and Hezbollah, the rebels are believed to have seen an opportunity to fight his army again.
The leader of HTS told CNN in a recent interview that the purpose of the offensive is to remove Assad from power.
“If we talk about goals, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime,” Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani told CNN. “The seeds of the regime's defeat have always been there… the Iranians tried to revive the regime, bought it time, and later the Russians also tried to support it. But the truth remains: this regime is dead.”
Rebel attacks in Syria are worsening the humanitarian situation
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the latest fighting, most of them headed for Raqqa province, which is controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Despite the agreement to allow safe passage for those fleeing Aleppo province, SDF sources told CBS News that more than 120 vehicles carrying hundreds of civilians were attacked by different Syrian Islamist groups on their way. Local authorities say the humanitarian situation for those arriving in safe havens is dire.
About 136 schools in Raqqa and 63 schools in Tabqqa city have been turned into shelters for IDPs. The Raqqa stadium, which was once used as a prison by ISIS terrorists during their control of the area, has also been turned into a camp to provide shelter to displaced civilians from the cold.
“The situation is catastrophic,” Zhwan Mullah, a member of the local disaster response team, told CBS News. “The number of IDPs is much larger than we can help. UN and NGO support so far has been very little.”
Saeed Muhammad Hassan, 53, fled Raqqa near Aleppo. On his way, he was separated from his wife, Sabah. Hassan, like a growing number of civilians separated from their loved ones while fleeing war-torn areas, took to local radio stations to plead to be reunited with Sabah.
“Many people are coming to us through different channels, looking for missing family members to be safe on the road to safety,” Sirwan Haji Birko, head of ARTA FM, told CBS News. “We are trying to help with everything we can to find the missing, on the radio and on social media.”
Source link