Rebel forces in southern Syria have reportedly captured most of the Deraa region – the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

A Britain-based war observer reports that “local factions” were able to take control of many military sites there after “violent fighting” with government troops.

According to the Reuters news agency, rebel sources said they had reached an agreement under which the army would be withdrawn and military officials would be granted safe passage to the capital Damascus, about 100 kilometers away.

Meanwhile, the Syrian military in the north says it is carrying out airstrikes around Homs to push back rebels who have reached the edges of the strategically important city.

According to reports from a war monitor, Syrian forces have withdrawn to towns just 10 km (6.2 miles) from Damascus. However, this was denied by the army and the BBC was unable to verify this.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor, said on Friday that rebels in the south controlled more than 90% of the Deraa region and only the Sanamayn area remained in government hands.

The city of Deraa has both strategic and symbolic importance. It is a provincial capital and is close to the main border crossings with Jordan. However, pro-democracy protests also erupted in 2011, sparking the country’s ongoing civil war in which more than half a million people were killed.

Jordan’s interior minister said the country had closed its side of the border “due to the security situation in southern Syria.”

In addition to the USA and Great Britain, Jordan has also called on its citizens to leave Syria as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, government officials in the town of Suweida – about 50 km east of Deraa – were reported to have fled the town following clashes between security forces and militias from the Druze minority, which dominates the region.

Ryan Marouf, an activist and editor of the news website Suwayda 24, told Reuters that “people see what is happening in the rest of Syria as the liberation of Syria and an opportunity to overthrow the regime.”

Elsewhere, Kurdish-led forces say they have captured the city of Deir Ezzor, the government’s main base in the vast desert in the country’s east.

And in the north, the rebels’ main offensive has reached the edge of the strategically important city of Homs. The Syrian military and its Russian allies are fighting back, killing 20 civilians in the city’s suburbs in airstrikes on Friday.

And crucially, officials quoted in The New York Times say that President Assad’s other key ally, Iran, has begun evacuating its military commanders and personnel.

It has been just over a week since rebels in the north launched their lightning offensive – the biggest against the Syrian government in years that has exposed the weakness of the country’s military.

According to the United Nations, at least 370,000 people have been displaced so far as a result of the rebel offensive. The fighting also resulted in “the already terrible situation for the civilian population in the north of the country becoming even worse.”

Some civilians are trapped in frontline areas and cannot reach safer places.

According to SOHR, more than 820 people, including 111 civilians, have been killed across the country since the Islamist-led rebels began their offensive last week.

She captured Hama north of Homs on Thursday – a second major blow to President Assad, who lost control of Aleppo last week.

The leader of the militant Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, told the residents of Homs: “Your time has come.”

The rebels have advanced south and Homs would be the next stop on the way to Damascus.

Frightened members of President Assad’s Alawite minority community are hastily leaving Homs, with video footage showing streets clogged with cars.

“Our troops have liberated the last village on the outskirts of the city of Homs and are now standing at its walls,” the Syrian faction that led the attack said on Telegram.

The BBC was unable to verify these movements, but SOHR previously reported that rebels were within a few kilometers of the city.

The SOHR said Russian warplanes bombed a bridge in nearby Rastan to slow the rebel advance.

After the Syrian military lost control of Hama after days of fighting, it is not clear whether it can defend Homs.

The Defense Ministry has denied claims that it had withdrawn troops from the strategic city that links the capital Damascus with the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast.

The Alawites are a minority of Shiite Muslims from which the Assad family comes.

They have long been an important support base for Assad’s rule and are crucial to the president’s rise to power.

Assad has vowed to “crush” the rebels and accused Western powers of trying to redraw the region’s map.

But analysts say so The forces are demoralized and are struggling with low wages and corruption in the ranks. He According to state news agency Sana, the company announced a 50% salary increase in recent days.

Russia and Iran, the regime’s key allies, have declared their continued support for Assad.

But they have not provided the kind of military aid that has so far bolstered his rule, and Moscow is now asking Russian nationals to leave the country.

The U.S. also recommended Friday that its citizens leave Syria “while commercial options remain available in Damascus.”

The Kremlin is preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, and Iran is weakened by Israel’s punitive campaign against its most powerful allied militia, Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, whose fighters played a crucial role in holding the regime’s territory in Syria, is now largely absent from the battlefield, although reports in the Lebanese and Israeli press say a small number of fighters have crossed the border to fight the to support the defense of Homs.

Russian and Iranian officials are expected to meet with their Turkish counterparts this weekend to discuss a response to this upsurge in the Syrian civil war.

Turkey supports some of the rebel groups and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been urging Mr Assad for months to find a political solution with the opposition.

He has expressed support for the rebels’ recent advances and said the offensive would not have happened if Assad had responded to his calls.

Analysts say this almost certainly would not have been possible without Ankara’s knowledge and consent.

For his part, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani has made public statements to soften his image and reassure both Syrians and foreign leaders.

He emphasized his separation from the Islamic State and al-Qaeda years ago, portraying himself as a nationalist who opposed attacks outside Syria and promising protection for minority communities.

In an interview with CNN, al-Jawlani said the rebels’ goal is to overthrow the Assad regime and install a government that represents all Syrians.

HTS fighters and their allies had previously taken over Hama and released prisoners from the central prison in bitter fighting, while the military said it had moved troops outside the city.

Hama is home to a million people and lies 110 km south of Aleppo, which the rebels captured last week.

In Aleppo, a city of two million people, some public services and essential facilities – including hospitals, bakeries, power plants, water, internet and telecommunications – are disrupted or non-functional due to a lack of supplies and staff.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on “all influential people to do their part” to end the civil war.

With additional reporting from Maia Davies