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Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.
We're coming to you live from London.
I'm James Menendez.
Syria's long running civil war have been largely dormant over the past few years, but now it's woken with a start.
A group of Islamist rebels known by the acronym hts, have broken out of their stronghold in the northwest of the country and they're moving and moving very quickly south in the direction of the capital Damascus, and the government of President Bashar Al Assad.
In a matter of days, they've seized control of Syria's second city, Aleppo.
Then on Thursday it was Hama, with its long history of opposition to the Assad regime.
And now they're bearing down on homs, the country's third biggest city, about 10, two hours drive along the highway to the capital.