Syrian rebel forces are stretching the Syria army nationwide, grabbing border posts and countryside regions as they challenge the regime in its symbolic power centres of Damascus and Aleppo, experts say.
An attack in the heart of Damascus last week, claimed by the rebel Free Syrian Army, killed four senior regime members and forced the government to redeploy troops to the capital, leaving gaps elsewhere that the rebels can exploit.
“There’s no doubt that they have to secure the capital,” British military expert Paul Smyth said of the government.
“The regime is undoubtedly becoming thinner and thinner and is more thinly spread,” added Smyth, director of the British firm R31 Consulting.
Joseph Holliday, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, agreed, pointing out that redeployments to Damascus had left the regime vulnerable elsewhere in the country.