Getty ImagesTens of thousands of people are fleeing Syria’s third-largest city of Homs as rebels claim to have reached its outskirts, just over a week since they launched their blitzkrieg offensive.
The rebels captured Hama to the north on Thursdayanother major blow to President Bashar al Assad, who lost control of Aleppo last week.
The leader of the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, told the residents of Homs that “your time has come”.
Rebel forces began the biggest offensive against Syria’s government in years last week.
They have been heading south and Homs would be the next stop on the way to the capital Damascus.
Their offensive is the fastest advance on the battlefield by either side since the Syrian civil war began 13 years ago, and exposed the weakness of the country’s military.
Terrified members of President Assad’s minority Alawite community rush to leave Homs, with video footage showing roads jammed with cars.
“Our forces have liberated the last village on the outskirts of the city of Homs and are now on its walls,” the Syrian faction leading the attack said on Telegram.
The BBC has not been able to verify these movements, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based war monitor, previously reported that rebels were within a few kilometers of the city.
SOHR said Russian warplanes had bombed a bridge in nearby Rastan to try to slow the rebel advance.
After the Syrian military lost control of Hama after days of fighting, it is not clear whether it will be able to defend Homs.
The defense ministry has rejected claims it has withdrawn troops from the strategic city, which links the capital Damascus to the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast.
Elsewhere, Kurdish-led forces say they have captured the city of Deir Ezzor, the government’s main stronghold in the vast desert in the east of the country.
In the south, Jordan closed its border after a flare-up of violence by local armed groups.
Russia’s support has kept President Bashar al Assad in power throughout the civil war – but it has appealed to the country’s citizens to leave the country.
The Alawites are a minority sect of Shia Muslims from which the Assad family is descended.
They have long formed an important base of support for Assad’s rule and are key to the president’s grip on power.
Assad has vowed to “crush” the rebels and accused Western powers of trying to redraw the map of the region
But analysts say his forces are demoralized and dealing with low pay and corruption in the ranks. He announced a 50% salary increase in recent days, according to state news agency SANA.
Russia and Iran, the regime’s main allies, have declared continued support for Assad,
But they have not provided the kind of military aid that has so far supported his rule, and Moscow is now urging Russian citizens to leave the country.
The Kremlin is preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, and Iran has been weakened by Israel’s punitive campaign against its most powerful allied militia, Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, whose fighters had been key to holding regime territory in Syria, is now largely absent from the battlefield, although reports in the Lebanese and Israeli press say a small number have crossed the border to support Homs’ defenses.
Russian and Iranian officials are expected to meet with their Turkish counterparts this weekend to discuss a response to this upsurge in Syria’s civil war.
Turkey supports some of the rebel groups, and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been pressuring Mr. Assad to reach a political solution with the opposition.
He has voiced support for the rebels’ recent advances, saying the offensive would not have happened if Assad had responded to his calls.
Analysts say it almost certainly could not have happened without Ankara’s knowledge and approval.
For his part, the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, has made public remarks to soften his image and reassure both Syrians and foreign leaders.
He has emphasized his split years ago from Islamic State and Al Qaeda, presented himself as a nationalist opposed to attacks outside Syria, and promised protection for minority communities.
In an interview with CNN, al-Jawlani said the goal of the rebel forces was to topple the Assad regime and install a government that represents all Syrians.
More than half a million people have been killed since a civil war broke out in 2011 after Assad’s government cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protests.
Since this offensive began nine days ago, SOHR says more than 820 people, including 111 civilians, have been killed across the country.
Earlier, HTS fighters and their allies took over Hama and released inmates from its central prison amid heavy fighting, while the military said it had redeployed troops outside the city.
Home to a million people, Hama is 110 km (70 miles) south of Aleppo, which the rebels captured last week.
Meanwhile, the UN has said the fighting is also “exacerbating an already dire situation for civilians in the northern part of the county”.
An estimated 280,000 people have been displaced, most of them women and children, and some civilians are trapped in frontline areas, unable to reach safer places.
In Aleppo, a city of two million people, some public services and critical facilities – including hospitals, bakeries, power plants, water, internet and telecommunications – are disrupted or non-functional due to lack of supplies and personnel.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on “all those with influence to do their part” to end the civil war.