Rebels advance on Damascus

Syria's embattled government said Saturday it was setting up a ring of steel around Damascus, state media reported, as rebels on a lightning advance said they were bearing down on the city.

"There is a very strong security and military cordon on the far edges of Damascus and its countryside, and no one... can penetrate this defensive line that we, the armed forces, are building," Interior Minister Mohammed al-Rahmoun told state television from the capital. Earlier, President Bashar al-Assad's government denied that the army had withdrawn from areas around Damascus.

"Our forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital," said rebel commander Hassan Abdel Ghani, with the Islamist-led alliance that launched the offensive.

The leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group which has headed the assault, told fighters to prepare to take Damascus, just over a week into a renewed offensive in the long dormant conflict.

"Damascus awaits you," said HTS's Ahmed al-Sharaa on Telegram, using his real name instead of his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. But the defence ministry insisted: "There is no truth to news claiming our armed forces... have withdrawn" from positions near Damascus.

AFP has been unable to independently verify some of the information provided by the government and the rebels, as its journalists cannot reach the areas around Damascus where the rebels say they are present.

In a Damascus suburb Saturday, witnesses said protesters toppled a statue of Assad's father, the late president Hafez al-Assad.

Similar scenes were witnessed in images shared by local media in the southern city of Daraa and in online footage verified by AFP from Hama, north of Damascus.

"The rebels entered Hama, it was a great joy for us -- something we had been waiting for since 2011," said resident Maymouna Jawad, of the year Assad's crackdown on democracy protests escalated into civil war.