Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is nowhere to be found in Damascus, a source told CNN. The official position of the Syrian president’s office is that Assad has not left the capital, however, a source with full knowledge of the situation told CNN that Assad is not in any of the city’s locations.

“Assad’s presidential guard is no longer deployed to his usual place of residence, as we would expect if he were there,” the source said, fueling speculation that he may have fled Damascus.

According to CNN, Assad’s security is always by his side and they always travel with him. According to the same source, jihadists have no reliable information on Assad’s location and are continuing their efforts to find him. For their part, however, Iranian officials have denied reports that their ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country.

At the same time, a Turkish journalist reports that “Assad has rejected all Arab initiatives presented to him in the past two days to step down and insists on a long transition phase during which a constitution will be drawn up and elections held under international supervision.”

The jihadists announced they have captured the city of Homs

The jihadists have “completely liberated” the city of Homs in the central part of the country, commander Hassan Abdul Ghani announced Saturday night into Sunday.

The capture of Homs, north of the capital Damascus, was hailed earlier by the head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS), calling it a “historic” moment.

In a video message on the Telegram platform, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sara – better known as Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani – said: “We are living the final moments of the liberation of the city of Homs (…) A historic event that will separate the truth from the lie.”

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose ranks are dominated by the former arm of al-Qaeda in Syria, and other jihadist groups launched attacks against the Syrian army last week, quickly seizing dozens of communities and strategic towns as they tightened their grip on Damascus.

Damascus prepares

Government forces in Syria are preparing for the “mother of all battles” as jihadists increasingly tighten the cordon around Damascus. The Syrian army announced late Saturday afternoon that it was reinforcing its defense lines around Damascus and in the south of the country, and the interior minister in charge said government forces were creating a “suffocating cordon” around the capital that no one would be able to break

At the same time, however, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is making a last-ditch effort to stay in power, attempting through diplomatic channels to distance himself from traditional allies who are unable to ensure he stays in power, and attempting to reach out to the US.

Bloomberg reports in an extensive report that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has already contacted the United States through the United Arab Emirates (UAE), offering to “cut all ties” with both Iran and Hezbollah if the US and Western countries help him remain in power.

Assad’s communication with the US came just hours after Trump’s public intervention on the Syrian civil war in which he urged Washington to stay out of it.

In the intense diplomatic stalemate Assad has engaged in to remain in power, he also sought to include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. As Bloomberg reports, Assad has sent a senior Christian official to meet the Hungarian president to convey what is as an existential threat to Syria’s Christian minority if the Islamist rebels prevail. The intention was for Orban, a Trump ally, to convey that danger to the incoming U.S. president, they said.

“Security cordon” around Damascus

The Syrian army said today it was reinforcing its lines of defence around Damascus and in the south of the country as panic has spread through the capital after jihadists said they were closing in.

“Our units are reinforcing their lines in the countryside of Damascus and the southern part of the country,” a spokesman for the army’s general command said in a televised statement. He also said the army was launching operations against rebels in “rural areas of Hama and Homs and in the north of the countryside of Dera,” a city in southern Syria.

At least 2,000 Syrian “officers and soldiers” deserted and crossed into Iraq

Iraqi authorities have allowed hundreds of Syrian soldiers who deserted to enter the country, two Iraqi security officials said, noting that among them were wounded.

The Syrian soldiers “fleeing the fighting” crossed into Iraq through the Al Qaim border crossing. The wounded were taken to the hospital in the community of the same name, located on the border in western Iraq, to receive first aid.

Another source said it was 2,000 “officers and soldiers” who entered Iraq “with the consent” of Iraqi authorities.

The Baghdad government, backed by pro-Iranian parties, has expressed support for the Syrian regime but is concerned about the consequences for the wider region of instability in Syria. To date, many officials, including the Prime Minister, appear very sceptical about the prospect of Iraqi intervention in the war. Authorities have sent in armored vehicles to beef up security at the border.

The jihadists say they have “started to surround Damascus”

The jihadists said they had “begun to encircle the capital Damascus” after capturing several major cities in the north, central and south within days.

“Our forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital Damascus,” said one of the jihadist commanders, Hassan Abdel Ghani. The Defense Ministry, however, denied this, saying that “the information that our armed forces, which are present in all zones of the Damascus countryside, have withdrawn is unfounded.”

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the army withdrew from positions in communities just 10 kilometers southwest of Damascus, which are now controlled by local jihadists. Ghani said his forces had captured the headquarters of the military intelligence agency, located near the capital, and that they were “continuing” their march toward the capital.

On the other side of the country, on the border with Iraq, dozens of Syrian soldiers crossed the Al Qaim border crossing and entered Iraqi territory in coordination with the Iraqi army, local officials and security sources said.

Druze have captured bases in Swaziland

Druze militias have captured most of the Syrian army bases in the Suayda province bordering Jordan, leaving only one large base north of the city of Suayda, rebel sources told Reuters.

The Khalhalala air base, north of the city, remains under army control and its forces are regrouping At the headquarters of the special forces unit based in the city of Swaziland, many deserted en masse, according to the rebels.

Hundreds of soldiers have taken shelter in Druze community centers, the sources added.