Syria civil war: Rebels set sights on Homs as Lebanon and Jordan close their borders

Rebel forces are now closing in on Syria's third biggest city - Homs - amid a sudden reignition of the country's civil war, ITV News Correspondent John Ray reports

Countries neighbouring Syria have begun closing their borders as Islamist insurgents set their sights on seizing the strategic city of Homs.

Thousands of people have fled the city, which lies on the road to Damascus and connects it with the vital coastal regions that are strongholds of support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Pro-government media and war monitoring organisations reported that the rebels entered two towns near Homs on Friday morning and were fewer than five miles from the city's edge.

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The rebels captured the major city of Hama on Thursday after three days of clashes with government forces.

Lebanon and Jordan closed most of their border crossings with Syria on Friday as the conflict in the Middle East continued to escalate.

One of the main crossings into Jordan has been seized by the insurgents, while crossings into Lebanon have been bombed by Israel.

Israel said it will be reinforcing the part of the Golan Heights it occupies which sits on the border between Syria and Israel. On Friday Russia also urged all of its citizens to leave Syria.

If the insurgents capture Homs they will control the country's first, third and fourth largest cities, with only Damascus out of their control.

The capture of Hama was a major blow to Al Assad, whose government was thrown into a major crisis when Aleppo was taken just days before.

The country's military said several troops were killed in the clashes in Hama, accusing insurgents of relying on suicide attacks. It said it redeployed from Hama and took positions outside the city to protect the lives of civilians.

However, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the de facto leader of the Syrian insurgency, described the advance on Hama as a "conquering that is not vengeful, but one of mercy and compassion".

Al-Golani's group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is the most powerful insurgency in Syria. It is a Sunni Islamist organisation which has long been involved in the country's conflict.

Also referred to as HTS or the Organisation for the Liberation of the Levant, the group has historic ties to Al-Qaeda, which it renounced in 2016 due to ideological differences. It is considered a terrorist group by the United Nations, and Western countries including the US and the UK.

Al-Golani told CNN that his main goal is to "overthrow" al-Assad and seize Damascus.

While HTS is leading the offensive, an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army – previously known as the Free Syrian Army – has also been pushing back Assad's forces, including in Aleppo.

There, the Syrian National Army has been fighting not only government forces but also Kurdish-led groups, with tens of thousands of Kurds fleeing the country's northeastern region.

Other rebel groups have also reportedly begun joining in on the offensive with fighters from Syria's Druze religious minority attacking government positions in the south, according to CNN.

Aleppo's takeover marked the first opposition attack on the city since 2016 when a brutal Russian air campaign retook it for Assad after rebel forces had initially seized it.

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Intervention by Russia, Iran, Iranian-allied Hezbollah, and other militant groups has allowed Assad to remain in power.

However, with Russia preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, and Iran politically weakened by Israel decimating much of Hezbollah's leadership and the re-election of Donald Trump, opposition forces have taken advantage of the opportunity, with renewed fighting beginning on November 27.

Hama is known for the 1982 massacre of Hama, one of the most notorious in the modern Middle East, when security forces under Assad's late father, Hafez Assad, killed more than 10,000 people to crush a Muslim Brotherhood uprising.

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