Syrian rebels advancing against government forces pushed close on Tuesday to the major city of Hama, rebels and a war monitor said, after their sudden capture of Aleppo last week rocked President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebels and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said insurgents had captured villages including Maar Shahur a few miles north of the city. Reuters reported that reinforcements were arriving in the area.

An attack on Hama would ramp up pressure on Assad, whose Russian and Iranian allies have scrambled to support him against a reviving rebellion. 

The city has remained in government hands since civil war erupted in 2011.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an Arabic-language interview that Tehran would consider sending troops to Syria if Damascus asked, and Russian President Vladimir Putin urged an end to “terrorist aggression” in Syria, RIA reported.

Iraq Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani said Baghdad would not be “a mere spectator” in Syria and blamed Israeli military strikes on the Syrian government for the rebel advance, his office said.

Compounding Assad’s problems, fighters from a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led coalition battled government forces in the northeast, both sides said, opening a new front along a vital supply route.

Last week’s rebel seizure of Aleppo – Syria’s largest city before the war – marked the biggest offensive for years.

The front lines of the conflict have been frozen since 2020 after Assad clawed back most of the country from rebels, thanks to help from Russian air power and military help from Iran and its network of regional Shi’ite militia groups.

Now, however, Russia has been concentrating on the war in Ukraine, while Israeli strikes over the past three months have decimated the leadership of Hezbollah, the strongest Iran-backed force fighting in Syria.

On Monday, hundreds of Iran-backed Iraqi militia fighters entered Syria to back up Syrian government forces, Iraqi and Syrian sources said, but Hezbollah does not plan to send forces now.

A rebel source said Iran-backed militia fighters were among the forces they were battling outside Hama.

In recent days, Russian and Syrian government warplanes have intensified airstrikes against rebels, both sides have said. Rescue workers have reported deadly strikes on hospitals in Aleppo and Idlib. – Reuters