Thousands of people have fled the Syrian city of Homs as antigovernment forces push their lightning offensive further south towards Damascus, according to a war monitor.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Friday that thousands of Homs residents started fleeing overnight towards the western coast, where embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad still maintains control, as the rebels advanced.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based monitoring group, said fighters led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) armed group were 5km (3 miles) “from the outskirts of Homs city” after capturing two towns – Rastan and Talbiseh – in the governorate of Homs.
Homs, a key crossroads city linking Damascus to al-Assad’s coastal heartlands, is 46km (29 miles) south of Hama, which HTS and allied fighters captured on Thursday, days after seizing the country’s prized second city Aleppo from government forces.
