She is in a state of panic Damask as the rebels are now within a few kilometers and having captured several cities in the west and north Syria.
Rebels are now in the suburbs of Damascus for the first time since the area was retaken by government troops in 2018 and Assad’s entrenchment in Syria.
One resident told The Associated Press that the city was in a state of panic, with security forces on the streets and many stores running out of food and other basic necessities.
The Syrian army withdrew from most of the southern regions of the country on Saturday (07/12/2024) but as it became known later it is fortifying positions in the suburbs of Damascus and in the south.
“Our units are reinforcing their lines in the countryside of Damascus and in the southern part of the country,” a spokesman for the army’s general command said in a televised statement.
He also said the army was launching operations against rebels in the “rural areas of Hama and Homs and in the northern countryside of Deraa”, a city in southern Syria.
At the same time, the commander of the Syrian rebels, Hassan Abdul Ghani, said today that the rebel forces captured a camp and a number of villages around the city of Homs.
Syrian rebels also seized Homs’ central prison and freed hundreds of prisoners, two rebel sources said.
The Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, considered a former al-Qaeda offshoot, has said it has a duty to protect the offices of government agencies, international organizations and the UN in Syria. He also stated that he has no intention of using chemical weapons, which are under the control of the Syrian authorities, “under no circumstances”.
Lebanon said it was closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for a main one linking Beirut to Damascus, while Jordan closed one border crossing with Syria because of the situation.
Assad is looking for allies to stay in power
Bashar al-Assad is making a last-ditch effort to stay in power and as he sees his traditional allies abandoning him or unable to help him. So he is looking for channels of communication with the US.
In fact, as reported by Bloomberg, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has already contacted the US through the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and offered to cut all ties with both Iran and Hezbollah if the West helps him stay in power. .
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has clearly stated that the US should not get involved in Syria as “it is not their war” while he seems to recognize Assad’s alliance with Russia.
Israel and the UN face together an attack on a post in Syria
The Israeli military announced today that it is helping UN forces “repulse” an attack in Syria on the border with the part of the Syrian Golan Heights that Israel has seized and annexed.
“Armed men attacked a UN post in the Hunter region of Syria,” the army said in a statement, referring to a town on the edge of the UN-controlled Golan buffer zone, noting that it was “helping UN forces repel the attack”.
The Israeli military says it has reinforced its forces in the area, which Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War.
In 1974, a UN force was sent to a neutral zone to monitor the observance of the ceasefire. As rebels led by radical Islamists stage a spectacular offensive in Syria over the past week, the Israeli military says it will continue to act “to protect the State of Israel and its citizens.”
The article Damascus zero hour: A breath from the city, the rebels, the army is fortified – Assad is looking for allies was published on NewsIT .