Jihadists march on Syrian capital

President Bashar Assad’s office has denied rumors that he plans to abandon Damascus to the terrorists

Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and other anti-government militias continued their advance towards Damascus on Saturday, with HTS reportedly reaching the city’s suburbs and the US-sponsored Free Syrian Army (FSA) seizing the ancient site of Palmyra.

HTS, a group led by a former Al-Qaeda commander and previously known as Jabhat al-Nusra, launched a surprise offensive from the opposition-held province of Idlib in northern Syria last week, swiftly driving the Syrian Army from Aleppo and entering the cities of Hama and Homs on the road south to Damascus.

With Kurdish militants battling government forces in Deir-ez-Zor to the east and Palmyra falling to the FSA, several Western media outlets have claimed that Assad is preparing to flee the country.

The president’s office, however, insists that he has no plans to leave Damascus. He has vowed to “eliminate” the rampaging jihadists and to punish their “sponsors and supporters.”