Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani wants to overthrow the Assad regime

“This regime is dead”

This is what the rebel leader is planning for the post-Assad period

Abu Mohammed al-Julani wants to free Syria from the Assad dictatorship. The Islamist rebel leader promises that there will be no arbitrary rule after that.

According to leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani, the goal of the Syrian rebel alliance is to overthrow Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad. The failure has always germinated within the regime itself, Al-Julani told the US broadcaster CNN. The Iranians and Russians tried to revive it. “But the truth remains: this regime is dead”said the rebel leader.

Al-Julani plans to establish an institution-based system of government in Syria – not one in which a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions, he said. “We are not talking about the rule of individuals or personal whims”said the leader of the Islamist group Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

In the middle of last week, the rebels led by HTS began their offensive in northwestern Syria and took control of Aleppo, the country’s second largest city, over the weekend. In addition to more than 200 villages and positions, they most recently took Hama.

video | Syria: Here the rebels are advancing in Hama

The next destination is Homs, around 40 kilometers south, the third largest city in the country and an important junction on the way to Damascus, the Mediterranean coast and Lebanon.

According to activists, the rebels have already taken control of the northern outskirts of Homs. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Friday that the opposition militias had advanced to within five kilometers of the city from the north. The towns of Talbiseh and Rastan are now under their control. There was fire from government troops in Talbiseh. Both places were strongholds of opposition forces at the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

Homs is about half an hour’s drive from the border with Lebanon. According to the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW), government control over Homs is crucial to enabling continued Iranian supplies to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Homs offers access to several border crossings into the neighboring country.

“Whoever wins the battle with Homs will rule Syria”said the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel-Rahman. The city is of strategic importance. If the rebels were successful, the capital Damascus’s connection to the Syrian Mediterranean ports would be cut off. But it is unclear whether the rebels have enough fighters to take Homs, with its population of around 1.4 million.