Thousands flee Syria’s Homs city as opposition forces close in: War monitor
Al Jazeera
Fighters led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are near outskirts of Homs, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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.
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