Syrian insurgents have reached the suburbs of Damascus as part of a rapidly moving offensive that has seen them take over some of Syria’s largest cities, opposition commander and activists said Saturday. 

 

This came as Syria's state news agency denied rumors that President Bashar Assad has left the country, saying he is at work in Damascus.

 

For his part, Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents are now active in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. He added that opposition fighters on Saturday were also marching from eastern Syria toward the Damascus suburb of Harasta.

 

A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces have started carrying out the “final stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus. He added that insurgents were headed from southern Syria toward Damascus.

 

The rapid advances by opposition factions is a stunning reversal of fortunes for Syria's President, who appears to be largely on his own, with erstwhile allies preoccupied with other conflicts, according to the AP.

 

His chief international backer, Russia, is busy with its war in Ukraine, and Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up his forces, has been weakened by a yearlong conflict with Israel. Iran, meanwhile, has seen its proxies across the region degraded by Israeli regular airstrikes.

 

The shock offensive began Nov. 27 led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham extremist group, HTS, during which gunmen captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central city of Hama, the country’s fourth largest city. The group has its origins in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organization by the US and the United Nations.

 

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani told CNN in an exclusive interview Thursday from Syria that the aim of the offensive is to overthrow Assad’s government.

 

The Syrian army said in a statement Saturday that it has carried out redeployment and repositioning in Sweida and Daraa after its checkpoints came under attack by “terrorists.” The army said it is setting up a “strong and coherent defensive and security belt in the area,” apparently to defend Damascus from the south.

 

Since Syria’s conflict broke out in March 2011, the Syrian government has been referring to opposition gunmen as terrorists.