Syria’s rebel alliance is edging closer to Damascus, saying its fighters are “at the gates” of the capital, after anti-regime forces swept across the country in a lightning offensive. The Syrian army denies it is in retreat, accusing the rebels of spreading panic.
Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has not departed Damascus, Syria’s presidency said. US officials said his regime could fall within days. A Damascus resident said the city is in “a state of tension and panic.”
In the south, a new uprising emerged along the Daraa province, with rebels there claiming to have seized a major military base as they charged toward the capital.
On the western edge of Syria, rebels are speeding toward the major city of Homs — where residents are fleeing ahead of potential hostilities between anti-regime and government forces.
Officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration, watching the remarkable speed of the Syrian rebel advance, increasingly see the possibility of Bashar al-Assad’s regime falling within days, five US officials told CNN.
If the American analysis proves true, it would represent a spectacularly fast fall from power for the Syrian dictator after a war that began in 2011, one that had been relatively stagnant until just last week.
Officials cautioned that there isn’t a formal assessment that has emerged on Assad’s fate and that views vary, saying his demise isn’t a foregone conclusion.
“The emerging consensus is that this is an increasingly plausible scenario,” one senior US official said.
“Probably by next weekend the Assad regime will have lost any semblance of power,” one said.
“Only thing that would delay a rebel conquest would be a well-organized coup and reorganization, but Assad’s folks have done a good job of stifling any potential competitors,” the official added.
