In a major victory in their military campaign against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, opposition rebels took over the southern city of Daraa on Saturday, marking the fourth city to be captured by the militant insurgents in just a few days. This intense escalation of the persistent conflict in the Middle Eastern nation presents an increasing danger to Bashar al-Assad.
The capture of Daraa is important as it is the origin of the 2011 rebellion against Assad and serves as the capital of a province with approximately 1 million residents, adjacent to Jordan.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that the Assad regime has requested arms and intelligence assistance from nations such as the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq as the military of the country keeps conceding significant areas to the insurgents.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, certain Arab officials are advising Assad to exit the nation.
On Friday, a new surge of assaults resulted in the deaths of at least 200 insurgents across different cities, with Syrian forces also responding to the rebel offensive, as reported by war monitors. The UN reports that at least 280,000 individuals have been forced to flee, raising concerns that this number may reach 1.5 million.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday about the necessity for a political resolution in Syria, where rebel groups are making gains. Turkey, which has a 911-kilometer border with Syria, has been a significant supporter of opposition factions aiming to remove Assad since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
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Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani, the head of the rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), states they aim to topple the current government and establish a new one. In addition to HTS, the combatants comprise troops from a coalition of Turkish-backed Syrian militias known as the Syrian National Army.
Meanwhile, the Iran-supported Lebanese militant group Hezbollah dispatched a limited contingent of “supervisory troops” from Lebanon to Syria overnight to assist in stopping anti-government combatants from taking control of the crucial city of Homs, as reported by news agency Reuters.
