Rebel fighters claimed they had captured the Syrian capital Damascus early Sunday as government troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were routed within days.

The rebel claim would open a new chapter in the 13-year civil war that has devastated the ancient country.

“We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” Hassan Abdul-Ghani, commander in chief of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, said in a post on WhatsApp. “To displaced people around the world: Free Syria awaits you.”

NBC News has not independently confirmed the rebel’s claim.

Assad’s whereabouts were not immediately known. Several media reports indicate that he has left Damascus. NBC News has not confirmed his departure or whereabouts.

Amid reports that Assad had left the capital, Syrian Prime Minister Ghazi al-Jalali said he was at his home and did not intend to leave “except in a peaceful manner that ensures the continued functioning of public institutions and state facilities.” and promotes security.” Reassurance for our fellow citizens.”

He said the government was ready to work with “any leadership elected by the Syrian people.”

The HTS General Command said it also released those detained in Sednaya Prison. According to Reuters, the Syrian government has held thousands in the military prison on the outskirts of Damascus.

“We announce to the Syrian people the news of the release of our prisoners and the breaking of their chains, thereby announcing the end of the era of oppression in Sednaya Prison.”

The sudden takeover of the capital by HTS fighters was seen as a blow to the outside forces that allowed Assad to remain in power for 24 years – Russia, Iran and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

President Joe Biden is monitoring events in Syria and is “in constant contact with regional partners,” White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement.

Damascus fell not long after rebels laid siege to the Syrian city of Homs on Friday in a snap attack on government troops that left three of the country’s five largest cities in their hands with nothing to stop them from marching on the Syrian capital. HTS rebels claimed ET on Saturday that they had captured the city, a day after they also claimed to have captured the town of Daraa.

The US, which has around 900 American troops stationed in northern Syria, has been closely monitoring developments in the country.

In less than two weeks, the HTS rebels also managed to conquer the city The city of Aleppo in the north and the city center of Hama, where government troops were driven out on Thursday.

The HTS attack on Aleppo was the first opposition attack on the city since 2016, when a brutal airstrike by Russian warplanes helped Assad recapture it Control of Aleppo.

“Our forces, thank God, continue to advance towards the city of Homs at a steady pace after convoys carrying hundreds of displaced people arrived from Homs to deter Assad’s aggression against their city,” said Hassan Abdul-Ghani, commander in chief of the HTS-led forces , published Friday on X.

HTS’s rapid advance comes at a time when new fighting is sweeping the Middle East and U.S.-backed Israel is trying to root out Hamas in Gaza and maintain a fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are groups allied with Iran.

Meanwhile, pro-Assad soldiers fought against Kurdish troops who captured government positions in eastern Syria near the cities of Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zour, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.

HTS emerged from the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations.

It is one of several competing forces in Syria fighting to topple the Assad regime, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians since the country’s civil war began nearly 14 years ago.

A ceasefire in 2020 left Assad in control of 70% of Syria, but around 6.8 million Syrians have fled the country.

Many have gone to Europe, where the sudden influx of Syrian refugees has led to a resurgence of anti-immigrant far-right movements from Portugal to Poland.

HTS’s recent successes on the battlefield are the culmination of a four-year effort to turn the rebels into a force capable of challenging Assad’s army and equipping it with drones and other high-tech weapons of war, experts say.

“The expansion of units … along with large-scale domestic rocket and missile production — has created a force that Assad’s regime is having serious difficulty defending against, let alone outmaneuvering,” said Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the Middle East Institute , a Washington-based think tank, in a Post on X