Damascus, Dec 8 (IANS): Rebel groups entered the central Syrian city of Homs as government forces moved to reposition around the city, war monitor and local media reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions have taken control of several neighborhoods in Homs, Xinhua news agency reported.

Police forces in the central prison of Homs opened the gates for the prisoners and released all of them, said the Observatory.

Meanwhile, pro-government radio station Sham FM said the Syrian army is redeploying its units on the outskirts of Homs without offering details on whether the army has withdrawn from any urban areas.

Homs, which was once considered a stronghold of the Syrian opposition in the early years of the country's civil war, has been largely under government control since 2014.

The city is the latest to fall in the rebels' hands since they launched a major offensive on November 27, having seized so far Aleppo and all of Idlib provinces in northern Syria, as well as the western-central Syrian city of Hama.