Syria’s government battles multiple rebel uprisings

President Bashar Assad’s political survival was under threat Saturday as the Syrian government battled opposition rebellions around the country and the strategic city of Homs was breached by the main rebel coalition, according to the fighters and a war monitor.

The rebels declared early Sunday that they had fully captured the city, not long after the Syrian defense ministry denied that rebels had entered Homs, which is only about 100 miles from the seat of Assad’s power in the capital, Damascus.

Anti-government protests took place near Damascus on Saturday, and Assad’s forces withdrew from several of its suburbs, according to war-monitoring groups.

The Syrian military denied the withdrawal. Yet Assad’s autocratic government, which had until just over a week ago appeared to have a firm grip over much of the country, now seemed to be facing a possible breach of the capital.

The new uprisings present the gravest challenge to Assad in years. It is unclear what resources he can marshal to defend the rapidly shrinking territory under his control, especially without the help of Iran, which began to evacuate personnel from Syria on Friday.

Russia, Assad’s other important ally through nearly 14 years of civil war, has offered only limited aid.

British-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces have pulled out of a number of the capital’s suburbs, including Moadamia al-Sham and Daraya, and the nearby Mezzeh military airport.

The Observatory also reported that residents of another Damascus suburb, Jaramana, came out in an anti-government protest, chanting anti-Assad slogans and pulling down a statue of the current president’s father and predecessor.

Assad’s control in southern and northeastern Syria, too, appeared to be crumbling, with a different coalition of rebel factions capturing much of Daraa province in the south, and U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces moving into the city of Deir el-Zour in the northeast, according to the Observatory.

“Syria is witnessing a historic change,” rebels said in a statement released on their official Telegram channel. “And the people’s message has become clear: There is no place for injustice, no return to tyranny, and the end is closer than Bashar imagines.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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