The extremist Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which leads a rebel alliance in Syria, announced today that its forces had entered Damascus.

Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly fled the country. Two senior officers of the Syrian armed forces told the Reuters news agency that President Assad boarded a plane which departed for an unknown destination.

Earlier, soldiers and members of the security forces left the airport of the Syrian capital, as it became known from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the London-based non-governmental organization but which maintains a wide network of sources in Syria, said government forces had been ordered to withdraw from Damascus international airport.

“Our forces have begun to enter Damascus,” the Islamist organization Hayat al-Tahrir announced via Telegram at dawn. At the same time, it said that its fighters had taken over Sednaya prison on the outskirts of the capital, freeing the prisoners. “We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of the release of our prisoners from their shackles and the announcement of the end of the era of injustice in Sednaya prison,” he adds.

“The doors of Sednaya prison, known as a ‘human slaughterhouse’, have been opened to thousands of prisoners,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is dominated by al-Qaeda’s former arm in Syria, and other rebel groups launched attacks against the Syrian army last week, quickly capturing dozens of communities and strategic towns, gradually encircling the capital before they launch their final attack.

Gunfire is heard in a central district of Damascus, two residents told Reuters news agency.

It was not clear where the shots were coming from, residents in a central district of the capital said.

Earlier, Syrian rebels announced that they had gained full control of the strategic city of Homs, increasingly tightening their grip on Damascus, leaving the future of the Assad regime hanging in the balance.

In the meantime, fighters of the Lebanese Hezbollah left the city of Qusair in the Homs province of southwestern Syria, shortly before it fell into the hands of the rebels, as the Reuters news agency reports today, citing sources from the Syrian army.

According to Reuters information, about 150 vehicles with hundreds of Hezbollah fighters gradually left Qusair heading for the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV reported that Israel had launched an airstrike against a convoy, without elaborating.

Qusayr and its surroundings have been repeatedly targeted by the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) who have made it clear that they will block any attempt to transfer weapons from Syria to Hezbollah.