Damascus is surrounded: Rebels swarm Syria’s capital WITHOUT resistance as thousands take to the streets and Assad vanishes

Video footage shared online and verified by Al Jazeera shows several people in Ummayad Square standing on an abandoned military tank.

The group sings in celebration as rebels invaded the capital in the early hours of Sunday morning local time.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad left Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters.

A Syria Air plane took off from Damascus airport around the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, according to data from the Flightradar website.

The plane initially flew toward the coastal region of Syria, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, but then made an abrupt U-turn and flew in the opposite direction for a few minutes before disappearing from the map.

It is unclear exactly who was on board the flight.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad listens to a question during an exclusive interview with AFP in the capital Damascus on February 11, 2016.

DailyMail.com will provide live updates this afternoon as rebel fighters in Syria enter the capital of Damascus.

The move brings them to the brink of victory as Syrian forces and their leader, President Bashar al-Assad, appear to flee the ruined capital.

On Saturday afternoon local time, opposition forces took the central city of Homs, SyriaIt is the third largest, since government forces abandoned it.

The city lies at an important intersection between Damascus, the capital, and the Syrian coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus, the support base of the Syrian leader and home to a strategic Russian naval base.

The rebels had already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama, as well as much of the south in a lightning offensive that began on November 27.