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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Syria's government has rejected reports that President Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus as insurgents opposing his regime continue their lightning offensive.
Opposition forces reached the outskirts of the Syrian capital on Saturday for the first time since 2018, according to news agencies, posing the greatest challenge to Assad's rule in years.
But in a statement on Telegram, the Syrian government said that foreign media were spreading "false news" about Assad leaving the Syrian capital or "making quick visits" to other countries.
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The presidency "denies all these rumors" and says Assad "is following up on his work and national and constitutional duties from the capital, Damascus," the statement on Saturday said, according to a translation.
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It added that such reports "are not new" but made by outlets which "have previously followed this pattern of attempts to mislead and influence the Syrian state and society throughout the past years of war."
It follows rumors about the Syrian president's whereabouts, with a pro-Assad TV news channel reporting on Friday that he had traveled to Iran, before later denying its own report.
Meanwhile, Asma al-Assad, the Syrian president's wife, fled with their three children to Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed Syrian security officials and Arab officials. His two brothers-in-law have also reportedly left Syria for the United Arab Emirates.
Newsweek has contacted the Syrian foreign ministry for comment.
Led by the jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, which has Al Qaida origins, the rebels launched their offensive on November 27, capturing the northern city of Aleppo and the central city of Hama.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani told CNN on Thursday from Syria that the rebels aimed to overthrown Assad.
Videos on social media on Saturday showed rebels celebrating, firing in the air, and toppling a statue of former President Hafez al-Assad in Deraa, the fourth city Assad's forces lost in a week, Reuters reported.
The rebels have said they had also seized Deir al-Zor in the east, southern Quneitra and Suweida in the south and advanced to within 30 miles of the capital, as government defenses have crumbled.
Reuters said that the rebels entered the country's third largest city of Homs on Saturday and its capture could deliver a knock-out blow to Assad's regime as it is a strategic hub connecting the capital to the north and the coast, the heartland of his Alawite sect.
A clip posted by journalist Thomas van Linge purports to show hundreds of defected regime soldiers in Suwayda chanting: "One, one, one. The Syrian people are one"
He said other footage from Damascus and Umayyad Square showed rebels advance on the city's outskirts. "The situation appears calm and there is no military in sight," he wrote. "It's like the Syrian capital is just waiting for the rebels to march in."
Vladimir Putin is reported to be unlikely to help Assad in the way he did in 2016 with air bombardments that allowed him to control Aleppo.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday that his Iranian and Turkish counterparts would call for "dialogue between the government and legitimate opposition" in Syria, without specifying what the opposition is.
Update 12/07/24, 11 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information.
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