‘About 2,000 Syrian troops cross into Iraq’ despite govt denying withdrawal

• Some wounded soldiers receive medical treatment.
• Army present in areas of Damascus province: Ministry of Defence.
• “Damascus is waiting for you,” says the HTS member as the situation escalates.
  

About 2,000 Syrian soldiers crossed the border into Iraq and sought refuge, said the mayor of the border town of Al-Qaim Turki Al-Mahlawi. Reuters on Saturday.

Some of the soldiers were injured and are currently receiving medical treatment, he added.

Rebels in a lightning advance through Syria said they were closing in on Damascus on Saturday, although Bashar al-Assad’s government denied the army had withdrawn from areas around the capital.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) has told fighters to prepare to take over the seat of Assad’s government, just over a week into a renewed uprising in the long-dormant conflict.

“Damascus is waiting for you,” Ahmed al-Sharaa of HTS said in a statement on Telegram, using his real name instead of his given name, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

Syria’s defense ministry said army forces were “present in all areas of Damascus province”.

“There is no truth in the news supporting our armed forces […] have withdrawn” from positions near Damascus, it said.

In a suburb of Damascus on Saturday, witnesses said protesters toppled a statue of late President Hafez al-Assad, who handed over power in Syria to his son.

Similar scenes were seen 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, one 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 “monitoring his work and his national and constitutional duties from the capital.”

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

Fears of chaos

As government forces retreated in the face of the onslaught, a war monitor and Abdel Ghani said the rebels were within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of Damascus.

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

The military said it was “redeploying and redeploying” to Daraa and another southern province, Sweida.

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

Jordan urged its citizens to leave neighboring Syria “as soon as possible”, as did Assad’s ally Russia and the United States, both of which maintain troops in Syria.

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

In the town of Sweida, a local fighter said AFP that since government forces had withdrawn “from their positions and headquarters, we are now securing and protecting vital installations.”

In the central Homs region, a key staging post for Damascus, the Observatory said government forces brought in “large reinforcements” and halted the rebel advance.

By Friday, the government had also withdrawn troops from Deir Ezzor in the east, with Kurdish-led forces saying they had entered.