Rebel forces in southern Syria have reportedly captured most of the Deraa region – the birthplace of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

A UK-based war monitor reports that the “local factions” were able to take control of many military sites there following “violent battles” with government forces.

According to Reuters news agency, rebel sources say they had reached a deal for the army to withdraw and for military officials to be given safe passage to the capital, Damascus – roughly 100km (62 miles) away.

Meanwhile in the north, Syria’s military says it is carrying out air strikes around Homs, trying to push back rebels who’ve reached the edges of the strategic city.

Reports from a war monitor indicate Syrian forces have withdrawn to towns just 10km (6.2 miles) from Damascus, although this has been denied by the army and the BBC has been unable to verify it.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based war monitor, said on Friday that the rebels in the south controlled more than 90% of the Deraa region and that only the Sanamayn area was still in government hands.

Deraa city has both strategic and symbolic importance. It is a provincial capital and is close to the main crossings on the Jordanian border, while also being where pro-democracy protests erupted in 2011 – sparking the country’s ongoing civil war, in which more than half a million people have been killed.

Jordan’s interior minister said the country had closed its side of the border as “a result of the surrounding security conditions in Syria’s south”.

Along with the US and UK, Jordan has also urged its citizens to leave Syria as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, government officials in the city of Suweida – about 50km east of Deraa – are reported to have fled the city following clashes between security forces and militias from the minority Druze sect, which is predominant in the region.