Syrian rebels say they have taken control of Homs

BBC- The leader of the Islamist group leading an insurgency in Syria says his forces have taken full control of Homs - the country's third largest city.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani called it a "historic victory" and urged his followers not to harm those who surrendered. The BBC has not yet been able to verify the claims.

The Syrian Defence Ministry said the reports were false and that the situation in Homs was "stable and safe".

Meanwhile, rebel forces are reported to be closing in on Damascus, as the Syrian army says it is boosting its deployment of forces around the capital.

According to the UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), anti-Assad fighters entered the city of Homs and "took control of several neighbourhoods".

Rebel commander Hasan Abdul Ghani announced the "complete liberation" of Homs and wrote on X that more than 3,500 inmates had been freed from prison.

The fall of the city to rebel forces would be another major blow to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as it would isolate Damascus, cutting the city off from the coastal heartland of his family's minority Alawite sect.

It would also be a symbolic victory, as Homs served as the opposition's stronghold in the early days of the civil war, which broke out in 2011.

Ghani said that efforts were continuing to "liberate the entire Damascus countryside, and our eyes are watching the capital, Damascus".

An unnamed US official has told the BBC's US partner, CBS News, that the city appears to be "falling suburb by suburb to the rebels".

Video footage posted on social media showed demonstrators chanting and cheering as a statue of President Assad's late father, Hafez al-Assad, is toppled in the southern suburb of Jeramana.

Damascus residents that the BBC spoke to described the uncertainty there.

"We are afraid because we really don't know what's going to happen," journalist Zaina Shahla said. "Nobody wants to see fighting in Damascus."

Rim Turkmani, director of the Syria Conflict Research Programme at the London School of Economics, said her sister was still in the city and had reported that supplies were running low and ATMs were running out of cash.