Syria monitor says rebels near Homs city, key link to regime bastion

BEIRUT: A monitor of Syria's war said rebels were just five kilometres from third city Homs on Friday, after controlling two strategic towns on the road linking it to Hama.

"Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions have reached five kilometres from the outskirts of Homs city after controlling the towns of Rastan and Talbisseh," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding that controlling Homs would allow the rebels to "cut off the main road leading to the Syrian coast", the stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority.

Meanwhile, air strikes targeted a bridge on the highway linking the Syrian cities of Homs and Hama, a war monitor said Friday, as government forces scramble to secure Homs after rebels captured Hama and commercial hub Aleppo.

"Fighter jets executed several airstrikes, targeting Al-Rastan bridge on (the) Homs-Hama highway... as well as attacking positions around the bridge, attempting to cut off the road between Hama and Homs and secure Homs," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched their offensive a little more than a week ago.

To slow the rebel advance, the Observatory said Assad's forces erected soil barriers on the highway north of Homs, Syria's third-largest city which lies just 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Hama.

Tens of thousands of members of Assad's Alawite minority community were fleeing Homs on Thursday, for fear that the rebels would keep up their advance, the Observatory said earlier.

The rebels captured Hama on Thursday following street battles with government forces, announcing "the complete liberation of the city" in a message on their Telegram channel.

Rebel fighters kissed the ground and let off volleys of celebratory gunfire as they entered Syria's fourth-largest city.

Many residents turned out to welcome the rebel fighters. An AFP photographer saw some residents set fire to a giant poster of Assad on the facade of city hall.

The army admitted losing control of the city, strategically located between Aleppo and Assad’s seat of power in Damascus.

Defence Minister Ali Abbas insisted that the army's withdrawal was a "temporary tactical measure".

"Our forces are still in the vicinity," he said in a statement carried by the official SANA news agency.