Syrian rebels gain control over major cities as government forces retreat
Syrian opposition forces captured four key cities in just over a week including Daraa‚ where the civil war started. Government troops face mounting pressure as rebels advance towards strategic locations
In a quick-paced turn of events Syrian rebels took over the southern city of Daraa (where anti-government protests first began back in 2011) marking their fourth major win in just over a week
The military made a deal to pull-out letting soldiers head north to Damascus which sits bout 60 miles away from Daraa; social-media showed happy locals and rebel fighters mixing in the streets. Daraaʼs population — once more than 100k people before the long-running conflict started — has deep meaning as the place where everything kicked-off
Rebels also pushed towards the city of Homs which sits at a super-important cross-roads spot between Damascus and the coast: taking it would cut-off the capital from Assadʼs supporters bases and Russian military spots. People living there started moving towards safer areas like Latakia and Tartus
The Kurdish-led alliance grabbed Deir el-Zor in the east while HTS and other groups got Aleppo and Hama earlier; this all happened since 11/27. Russian-Syrian air-strikes tried hitting back at rebel spots (they say they got 200 fighters) but the push keeps going. Hezbollah forces came to help defend Assadʼs troops near Homs
This operation broke the enemy
The whole thing started as protests in 2011 and turned into this huge mess that took over 305k lives by 21ʼ. Assad stayed in charge thanks to Russia Iran and Hezbollah but these friends got their own problems now; Iran even started moving its military people out which doesnt look good for the government
