Syrian opposition fighters said they seized control of the southern city of Daraa on Saturday, the birthplace of a 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and the fourth city his forces have lost in a week.
Opposition sources said the military agreed to make an orderly withdrawal from Daraa under a deal giving army officials safe passage to the capital Damascus, about 100 km north.
Social media videos showed fighters on motorcycles and others mingling with residents on the streets. People fired shots into the air at the city's main square in celebration, according to the videos.
With the fall of Daraa, Assad's forces have surrendered four important centers to the insurgents in a week.
Daraa, which had a population of more than 100,000 before the civil war began 13 years ago, holds symbolic importance as the cradle of the uprising. It is the capital of a province of about 1 million people, bordering Jordan.
Daraa was taken by local armed groups, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"Local factions have taken control of more areas in Daraa province, including Daraa city... they now control more than 90 percent of the province, as regime forces successively pulled out," the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources around Syria, said late Friday.
Daraa's seizure followed the opposition's claim late on Friday that it had advanced to the edge of the central city of Homs, a key crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean coast.
Capturing Homs would cut off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad's minority Alawite sect, and from a naval base and air base of his Russian allies there. "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 sweeping assault said on the Telegram messaging app.
A coalition of opposition factions that include Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) made a last call on forces loyal to Assad's government in Homs to defect.
Ahead of the advance, thousands of people fled Homs towards the coastal regions of Latakia and Tartus, strongholds of the government, residents and witnesses said.
