Syria Opposition Factions Say Encircling Damascus

Opposition fighters at a military airbase seized from the government, near the central city of Hama - AFP
Opposition fighters at a military airbase seized from the government, near the central city of Hama - AFP
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Syria Opposition Factions Say Encircling Damascus

Opposition fighters at a military airbase seized from the government, near the central city of Hama - AFP
Opposition fighters at a military airbase seized from the government, near the central city of Hama - AFP

Opposition factions on a lightning advance through Syria said on Saturday they have begun to encircle Damascus as government forces denied they had withdrawn from areas near the capital.

"Our forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital, Damascus," said opposition commander Hassan Abdel Ghani.

The defense ministry flatly denied the army had fled positions near the city, according to AFP.

"There is no truth to news claiming our armed forces, present in all areas of the Damascus countryside, have withdrawn," it said.
Earlier, a war monitor and Abdel Ghani said opposition fighters were within 20 kilometres of Damascus as government forces fall back in the face of the offensive gathering even more momentum.

The Syria Observatory for Human Rights said government forces had ceded more key ground, losing control of all of southern Daraa province and evacuating posts in Quneitra, near the Israel-annexed Golan Heights.

The monitor said government forces were also pulling out of towns as little as 10 kilometres (six miles) from Damascus.

Abdel Ghani said earlier that "our forces were able to control the Saasaa (security) branch in the Damascus countryside. The advance towards the capital continues."

Airstrikes and shelling by government forces and their ally Russia killed at least seven civilians near the city of Homs, as the army sought to slow the opposition advance there.

The opposition gains have brought Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies to the doorstep of President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power, just over a week into a renewed offensive in a conflict that had long seemed frozen.

As the militants seize more territory, they have also sought to reassure those living in areas now under their control.

Abdel Ghani in a statement on Telegram Saturday recognized that the opposition had taken areas where "different religious sects and minorities" live.

"We ask that all sects be reassured... for the era of sectarianism and tyranny has gone away forever," he said.

Minorities have often been persecuted during Syria's long conflict, and HTS's precursor Al-Nusra Front, which was linked to Al-Qaeda, launched deadly attacks on Assad's Alawite minority in Homs early in the war.

The army said it was redeploying in the south where the Observatory said the government had lost control of Daraa province and the key city of the same name, cradle of the 2011 uprising.

An AFP correspondent in Daraa saw local fighters guarding public property and civil institutions on Saturday.

In the central Homs area, a key stepping stone to the seat of power in Damascus, the Observatory said government forces had brought "large reinforcements" and stopped the opposition advance.

An army statement carried by state media said government forces were "redeploying and repositioning" in the southern provinces of Sweida and Daraa.

But both the Observatory and opposition said that government forces no longer controlled any of Daraa province.

Daraa and Quneitra are near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, where Israel said it was boosting its troop presence, and Jordan, which late Friday urged its citizens to leave Syria "as soon as possible".

Russia and the United States have also advised their nationals to leave.

For his part, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for a "political solution to the conflict" and for the protection of civilians and minorities, his spokesperson said Friday, in a call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Fidan and his Iranian and Russian counterparts discussed Syria in Qatar on Saturday.

Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, said the world had been "surprised" by the speed of the opposition advance, and called for "a political framework" to prevent violence from spiralling.

He also said Assad had failed to "start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people".



Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
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Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese gives a press conference at the UN City in Copenhagen, Denmark February 5, 2025. Ritzau Scanpix/Ida Marie Odgaard via REUTERS/File Photo

Human rights defenders rallied on Thursday to support the top UN expert on Palestinian rights, after the United States imposed sanctions on her over what it said was unfair criticism of Israel.

Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese serves as special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, one of dozens of experts appointed by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council to report on specific global issues.

She has long criticized Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, and this month published a report accusing over 60 companies, including some US firms, of supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank and military actions in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday Albanese would be added to the US sanctions list for work which had prompted what he described as illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis at the International Criminal Court.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged Washington to reverse course.

"Even in the face of fierce disagreement, UN Member States should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures," he said, Reuters reported.

Juerg Lauber, the Swiss permanent representative to the UN who now holds the rotating presidency of the Human Rights Council, said he regretted the sanctions, and called on states to "refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal" against the body's experts.

Mariana Katzarova, who serves as the special rapporteur for human rights in Russia, said her concern was that other countries would follow the US lead.

"This is totally unacceptable and opens the gates for any other government to do the same," she told Reuters. "It is an attack on UN system as a whole. Member states must stand up and denounce this."

Russia has rejected Katzarova's mandate and refused to let her enter the country, but it has so far stopped short of publicly adding her to a sanctions list.

Washington has already imposed sanctions against officials at the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for suspected war crimes in Gaza. Another court, the International Court of Justice, is hearing a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of genocide.

Israel denies that its forces have carried out war crimes or genocide against Palestinians in the war in Gaza, which was precipitated by an attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023.

"The United States is working to dismantle the norms and institutions on which survivors of grave abuses rely," said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

The group's former head, Kenneth Roth, called the US sanctions an attempt "to deter prosecution of Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza".

The United States, once one of the most active members of the Human Rights Council, has disengaged from it under President Donald Trump, alleging an anti-Israel bias.