Volkswacht Bodensee - War monitor says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left the country

Residents in the Syrian capital told AFP heavy gunfire rang out, after a source close to Hezbollah saying fighters from the key Assad ally had left their positions around Damascus.

The president's reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group launched its campaign challenging more than five decades of rule by the Assad family.

"Assad left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left" the facility," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.

AFP was unable to immediately confirm the report.

After saying their forces were heading into the capital, HTS announced an "end of the era of tyranny in the prison of Sednaya" as they broke into the jail which has become a by-word for darkest abuses of the Syrian regime.

The rapid developments in Damascus come only hours after HTS said they had captured the strategic city of Homs, on the way to the capital.

The defence ministry earlier denied that rebels had entered Homs, describing the situation there as "safe and stable".

Homs lies about 140 kilometres (85 miles) north of the capital and was the third major city seized by the rebels who began their advance on November 27, reigniting a years-long war that had become largely dormant.

- Hezbollah fighters leave -

Monitoring events in Damascus, the Britain-based Observatory confirmed "the doors of the infamous 'Sednaya' prison... have been opened for thousands of detainees who were imprisoned by the security apparatus throughout the regime's rule".

Earlier, Assad's government denied the army had withdrawn from areas around Damascus.

"A very strong security and military cordon" was being established by the armed forces around the capital "and no one... can penetrate this defensive line", Interior Minister Mohammed al-Rahmoun told state television.

Assad has for years been backed by Lebanese Hezbollah, whose forces "vacated their positions around Damascus" according to a source close to the group.

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", the source also told AFP.

A source close to Hezbollah earlier said it had sent 2,000 fighters into Syria, to an area near the Lebanese border, "to defend its positions".

- 'Suddenly everyone was scared' -

The defence ministry earlier insisted: "There is no truth to news claiming our armed forces... have withdrawn" from positions near Damascus.

The Syrian army said that, in addition to the area around Damascus, it was reinforcing positions in the south, and operations against the rebels were beginning in the Hama, Homs and Daraa areas.

AFP has been unable to independently verify some of the information provided by the government and the rebels, as its journalists cannot reach the areas around Damascus where the rebels say they are present.

Residents of the capital described to AFP a state of panic as traffic jams clogged the city centre, 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.

A few kilometres (miles) away, the mood was starkly different.

In a Damascus suburb, witnesses said protesters toppled a statue of Assad's father, the late leader Hafez al-Assad.

AFPTV images from Hama, Syria's fourth-largest city, showed abandoned tanks and other armoured vehicles, one of them on fire.

Hama resident Kharfan Mansour said he was "happy with the liberation of Hama and the liberation of Syria from the Assad regime".

- Soldiers 'fled' to Iraq -

The Observatory said government forces had ceded more key ground, losing control of all southern Daraa province, the cradle of the 2011 uprising.

The army said it was "redeploying and repositioning" in Daraa and another southern province, Sweida.

The Observatory also said troops were also evacuating posts in Quneitra, near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Jordan has urged its citizens to leave neighbouring Syria "as soon as possible", as have the United States and Assad ally Russia, which both keep troops in Syria.

An AFP correspondent in Daraa saw local fighters guarding public property and civil institutions.

In Sweida, a local fighter told AFP that after government forces withdrew "from their positions and headquarters, we are now securing and protecting vital facilities".

An Iraqi security source told AFP that Baghdad has allowed in hundreds of Syrian soldiers, who "fled the front lines", through the Al-Qaim border crossing. A second source put the figure at 2,000 troops, including officers.

- 'War, blood and tears' -

HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has sought to soften its image in recent years, and told minority groups living in areas they now control not to worry.

Since the offensive began, at least 826 people, mostly combatants but also including 111 civilians, have been killed, the Observatory said.

The United Nations said the violence has displaced 370,000 people.

UN special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, called for "urgent political talks" to implement a 2015 Security Council resolution, which set out 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.

After Fidan and his Iranian and Russian counterparts discussed Syria in Qatar on Saturday, Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said they agreed on the initiation of "political dialogue between the Syrian government and legitimate opposition groups".

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".

F.Stadler--VB