Thousands flee as Syrian rebels push on towards Homs

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs overnight and into Friday morning, a war monitoring group and residents said, as rebel forces sought to push their lightning offensive against government forces further south.

They have already captured the key cities of Aleppo in the north and Hama in the centre, dealing successive blows to President Bashar al-Assad, nearly 14 years after protests against him erupted across Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said thousands of people had begun fleeing on Thursday night towards western coastal regions, a stronghold of the government.

A resident of the coastal area said thousands of people had begun arriving there from Homs, fearing the rebels' rapid advance.

On Friday morning, Israeli air strikes hit two border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamieh said.

The Syrian state news agency (SANA) said the Arida border crossing with Lebanon was out of service due to the attack.

The Israeli military said it had attacked weapons transfer hubs and infrastructure overnight on the Syrian side of the Lebanese border, saying these routes had been used by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah to smuggle weapons.

Russian bombing overnight also destroyed the Rustan bridge along the key M5 highway, the main route to Homs, to prevent rebels using it, a Syrian army officer told Reuters.

"There were at least eight strikes on the bridge," he added. Government forces were bringing reinforcements to positions around the city, he said.

Rebels led by the Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have pledged to press on southward to Homs, a crossroads city that links the capital Damascus to the north and Assad’s heartland along the coast.

A rebel operations room urged Homs residents in an online post to rise up, saying: "Your time has come."

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; additional reporting by Clauda Tanios; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Kim Coghill and Kevin Liffey)