Insurgents advance on Syrian capital Damascus, city expected to fall

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Sunday, December 8, 2024

On Saturday, US officials recounted to CBS News that insurgents in Syria were bearing down on the city of Damascus, which is the nation's capital.

The insurgents previously captured other large cities in Syria, such as Homs, which Reuters reported had been forsaken by the nation's military. Due to Homs' close proximity to both the nation's capital and to regions where Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is most popular, the loss of the city is considered to be a significant setback for his regime. The Syrian government has made efforts to dispel rumors that the leader has fled the country and gone into hiding.

Syria has been reeling from a lack of military support to defend against the insurgency. Many of Syria's allies are currently engaged in their own affairs (such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War and the Israel-Palestine conflict), and US officials claimed that Iranian armed military forces who had been attempting to repel the insurgency have pulled operations out of Syria.

Rebel commander Hassan Abdul-Ghani has called the capture of Damascus the "final stage" in the effort to overthrow Assad's regime, and claimed that the insurgency is closing in on the city from the south. The Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hama have also been captured by the insurgency.

Sources

Margaret Brennan. "Damascus expected to fall, U.S. officials say, as insurgents surround Syrian capital" — CBS News, December 7, 2024
The Associated Press. "Insurgents reach gates of Syria's capital, threatening to upend decades of Assad rule" — NPR, December 7, 2024