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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left Damascus for an unknown destination as rebels announced that they were entering the capital, according to reports. The President boarded a plane and left for an unknown destination, two senior army officers told news agency Reuters. AFP reported that according to a war monitor, the Army and security forces had abandoned Damascus International Airport. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that fighters of a key Assad ally had left their positions around the Syrian capital.
The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group said its forces were moving into Damascus. Soon after, they announced an "end of the era of tyranny in the prison of Sednaya" as the rebels broke into the jail that has become a byword for the darkest abuses of the Syrian regime, AFP reported.
Earlier, the rebel group had said they had captured the strategic city of Homs, on the way to the capital. But the Syrian defence ministry had denied this and said the situation in Homs was "safe and stable".
The Hezbollah, which backed the Assad regime for years, has asked its forces to withdraw. Hezbollah "has instructed its fighters in recent hours to withdraw from the Homs area, with some heading to Latakia (in Syria) and others to the Hermel area in Lebanon", a source told AFP.
The Syrian defence ministry had earlier said "there is no truth to news claiming our armed forces... have withdrawn" from positions near Damascus. It also said it was reinforcing positions in the south, and operations against the rebels had started in the Hama, Homs and Daraa areas.
Residents of Damascus have told AFP that there was panic as traffic jams clogged the streets, people sought supplies and queued to withdraw money from ATMs. "The situation was not like this when I left my house this morning... suddenly everyone was scared," said one woman, Rania.
In a Damascus suburb, witnesses said protesters had toppled a statue of Assad's father, the late leader Hafez al-Assad.
The president's office had, however, denied reports that Assad had left Damascus and said he was working "from the capital".
An Iraqi security source has told AFP that Baghdad has allowed in hundreds of Syrian soldiers, who "fled the front lines". A second source put the figure at 2,000 troops, including officers.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Tagged as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has tried to soften its image and told minority groups that they have no cause to worry.
The United Nations said the violence had displaced 370,000 people. UN special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, called for "urgent political talks" to implement a 2015 Security Council resolution laying a roadmap for a negotiated settlement.
US President-elect Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the United States should "not get involved", after outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Friday for a "political solution to the conflict", in a call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was "inadmissible" to allow a "terrorist group to take control" of Syrian territory. Moscow and Tehran have supported Assad's government and army during the war.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government backs some armed groups in northern Syria, said Saturday that Syria "is tired of war, blood and tears".