Syrian rebels say senior Assad regime officials are preparing to defect to their side in the capital Damascus as they continue to advance rapidly.
“A group of senior regime officials and officials in the capital, Damascus, are coordinating with us to ensure their defection,” Lt. Col. Hassan Abdul Ghani, a spokesman for the Military Operations Command, said in a statement Saturday night.
“This generated a climate of distrust among the regime’s military leaders, with accusations of treason and collaboration with the revolutionaries,” he added.
THE CNN has not yet been able to verify this claim.
Remember
The Military Operations Command, Syria’s rebel alliance, was formed just over a week ago, but its progress has been rapid. After capturing Aleppo last week, his forces took Hama on Thursday (5) and, on Saturday (7), claimed to have entered Homs, while advancing along the main road, which leads to the capital Damascus.
Meanwhile, the capital is increasingly surrounded by rebel groups from the south, who launched their offensive on Friday (6) but have already wiped out much of the southern countryside. Earlier on Saturday, southern rebels said they had reached “the gates” of Damascus.
Understand the conflict in Syria
Syria’s civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad suppressed a pro-democracy uprising.
The country was plunged into full-scale conflict when a rebel force was formed, known as the Free Syrian Army, to fight government troops.
Furthermore, the Islamic State, a terrorist group, also managed to gain a foothold in the country and came to control 70% of Syrian territory.
Fighting escalated as other regional actors and world powers — from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia — joined in, escalating the country’s war into what some observers described as a “proxy war.”
Russia has allied with Bashar al-Assad’s government to fight the Islamic State and rebels, while the United States has led an international coalition to repel the terrorist group.
After a ceasefire agreement in 2020, the conflict remained largely “dormant”, with minor clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime.
More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the UN, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.
This content was originally published in Assad government officials prepare to defect Damascus, rebels say on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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