"Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions have reached five kilometres (three miles) from the outskirts of Homs city" after capturing Rastan and Talbisseh, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said controlling Homs would allow the Insurgents to "cut off the main road leading to the Syrian coast", the stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite community.

Homs is south of Hama, which armed group HTS and allied militants captured on Thursday, just days after taking second city Aleppo from the government.

Militant commander Hassan Abdel Ghani said in a statement on Telegram on Friday that "our forces continue to march steadily towards the city of Homs".

He said "hundreds" of militants who had been forced to leave Homs years ago after the government retook it had returned to seize back control.

Homs was once dubbed the "capital of the revolution" because of the large-scale protests in the city when Syria's uprising began in March 2011.

In the conflict's early years, Homs saw fierce battles between armed factions and the Syrian army, which took control of the city in 2014 after militants withdrew from its devastated Old City under a settlement deal, following two years of siege and bombardment.

Between March and May 2017, thousands were evacuated from Waer, Homs's last militant-held neighbourhood, allowing Syrian forces to retake full control.

The city has also seen violence against its Alawite community.

In April 2014, at least 100 people, mostly civilians, were killed in twin attacks in Homs that targeted a majority Alawite neighbourhood.

The attacks were claimed by the Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda which now HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani previously led.

Jolani announced his group had cut ties with the terrorist group in 2016, and Al-Nusra was dissolved the following year, to be replaced by the key component of HTS.

The Britain-based Observatory had said tens of thousands of Alawite residents were fleeing Homs on Thursday towards the coast, fearing the militant advance.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.