Syrian rebels battled government forces for control of the key city of Homs on Saturday and advanced towards the capital Damascus, a lightning offensive that prompted US and other Western officials to predict President Bashar al-Assad's rule could end within the next week.
Since the rebels' sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled at dizzying speed as insurgents seized a string of major cities and rose up in places where the 13-year-old rebellion had long seemed over.
The twin threats to strategically vital Homs and the capital Damascus now pose an existential danger to the Assad dynasty's five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer Iran.
The rebel advance suggests that Assad's government could be on the verge of collapse, officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. One US official put the potential timeframe at five to 10 days while another said Assad could be ousted in the coming week. A Western official agreed with the latter assessment.
A Homs resident, and army and rebel sources said the insurgents had breached government defences from the north and east of the city. A rebel commander said they had taken control of an army camp and villages outside the city.
State television reported that the insurgents had not penetrated into Homs although it said they were on the city outskirts, where it said the military was striking them with artillery and drones.
Insurgents have seized almost the entire southwest within 24 hours, and they have advanced to within 30 km (20 miles) of Damascus as government forces fell back, rebels said.
Underscoring the possibility of an uprising in the capital, protesters took to the streets in several Damascus suburbs, ripping up Assad posters and tearing down a statue of his father, former President Hafez al-Assad, uncontested by army or police. Some were joined by soldiers who had changed into civilian clothes and deserted, residents said.
However, the state news agency reported that Assad remains in Damascus, and the military said it was reinforcing around the capital and south.
The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability.
Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad's rule, dragged in big outside powers, created space for jihadist fighters to plot attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees into neighbouring states.
Assad had long relied on allies to subdue the rebels. Russian warplanes conducted bombing while Iran sent allied forces including Lebanon's Hizbollah and Iraqi soldiers to reinforce the Syrian military and storm insurgent strongholds.
But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hizbollah has suffered big losses in its own gruelling war with Israel, significantly limiting its ability or that of Iran to bolster Assad.
US President-elect Donald Trump said the US should not be involved in the conflict and should "let it play out."
