‘Around 2,000 Syrian troops cross to Iraq’ despite govt denies falling back

• Some wounded troops currently receiving medical treatment.
• Army present in areas of Damascus countryside: defence ministry.
• “Damascus awaits you,” HTS member says as situation escalates. 
  

Around 2,000 Syrian troops have crossed the border into Iraq and sought refuge, the mayor of Al-Qaim border town Turki Al-Mahlawi, told Reuters on Saturday.

Some of the troops were wounded and are currently receiving medical treatment, he added.

Rebels on a lightning advance through Syria said they were nearing Damascus on Saturday, although Bashar al-Assad’s government denied that the army had withdrawn from areas around the capital.

“Our forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital,” said rebel commander Hassan Abdel Ghani.

The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) told fighters to prepare to take the seat of Assad’s government, just over a week into a renewed rebellion in the long dormant conflict.

“Damascus awaits you,” said HTS’s Ahmed al-Sharaa in a statement on Telegram, using his real name instead of his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

Syria’s defence ministry said army forces were “present in all areas of the Damascus countryside”.

“There is no truth to news claiming our armed forces […] have withdrawn” from positions near Damascus, it said.

In a Damascus suburb on Saturday, witnesses said protesters toppled a statue of the late president Hafez al-Assad, who handed Syria’s rule to his son.

Similar scenes were witnessed in images shared by local media in the southern city of Daraa and in online footage verified by AFP from Hama, north of the capital.

In Hama, an AFP photographer saw residents set fire to a giant poster of President Assad on the facade of city hall.

Syria’s presidency denied reports that Assad had left Damascus, saying he was “following up on his work and national and constitutional duties from the capital”.

The HTS leader said in a CNN interview published on Friday that “the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime”.

Fears of chaos

As government forces fall back in the face of the offensive gathering even more momentum, a war monitor and Abdel Ghani said rebels were within 20 kilometres (12 miles) of Damascus.

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

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

The Britain-based Observatory said troops were also evacuating posts in Quneitra, near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights where Israel said it was boosting its troop presence.

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

After the HTS-led rebels seized Aleppo and Hama earlier in their offensive since November 27, Daraa was taken by local armed groups, the Observatory said.

In Sweida city, a local fighter told AFP that after government forces had withdrawn “from their positions and headquarters, we are now securing and protecting vital facilities”.

In the central Homs area, a key stepping stone to Damascus, the Observatory said government forces had brought “large reinforcements” and stopped the rebel advance.

By Friday, the government was also pulling troops out of Deir Ezzor in the east, with Kurdish-led forces saying they had moved in.