Terrorist teams have taken over a few of Syria’s largest cities as Assad’s workplace claims the president continues to be within the capital
Jihadist teams in Syria have reached the suburbs of Damascus as a part of a quickly progressing offensive that has overrun a few of Syria’s largest cities, Related Press wrote on Saturday, quoting opposition leaders and an Islamist commander.
On the similar time, the Syrian presidency has refuted rumors stating that President Bashar Assad has left Damascus, including that false reviews of his departure from the Syrian capital have been unfold by international shops in an try and “mislead and affect” the nation’s inhabitants.
With Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and different anti-government forces transferring south from Aleppo and Idlib provinces during the last week, the Syrian Military has repeatedly withdrawn from key strongholds – together with Aleppo, Hama, and a number of other cities north of Homs – in a bid to re-establish defensive strains and maintain again the advancing terrorists.
In keeping with Related Press, terrorist components apparently broke by these strains and reached the outskirts of Damascus on Saturday, marking the primary time since 2015 that jihadists have encroached on the capital.
Amid HTS’ lightning-fast advance, the workplace of the Syrian Presidency introduced on Saturday that “some international media shops are spreading rumors and false information about President Bashar al-Assad leaving Damascus, or making fast visits to at least one nation or one other.”
“The Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic denies all these rumors and factors out their blatant objectives and confirms that they aren’t new, however quite these shops have beforehand adopted this sample of makes an attempt to mislead and affect the Syrian state and society all through the previous years of the warfare,” the assertion continued.
Assad continues to be finishing up his “nationwide and constitutional duties from the capital, Damascus,” it concluded.
In an anonymously-sourced report on Friday, the Telegraph claimed that Assad’s household had fled to Russia, and that it was “unclear” whether or not the president himself would stay in Syria. A number of Western shops have claimed that Egypt and Jordan are urging Assad to flee the nation and arrange a authorities in exile.
Led by a former Al-Qaeda commander and beforehand often known as Jabhat al-Nusra, HTS was one in all a large number of factions opposing Assad’s authorities through the Syrian Civil Warfare.
Russia intervened within the battle in 2015, serving to Assad retake a lot of the nation from Jabhat al-Nusra, Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS), and dozens of US-supported armed teams termed “reasonable rebels” by Washington. The US immediately intervened in opposition to IS, however armed and funded different anti-Assad forces through the decade-long battle.
Assad has vowed to “remove” the jihadists at present rampaging by central Syria, and to punish their “sponsors and supporters.” Russian and Syrian warplanes have carried out near-constant airstrikes in opposition to HTS positions because the terrorist offensive started final week, reportedly killing dozens of militants north of Homs on Saturday.
In keeping with Syrian media reviews, Syrian and Russian forces have killed round 2,500 jihadists because the starting of December.
