Syrian president’s rule could end in DAYS after rebels enter Damascus as image of Assad in Speedos found in his palace

ASSAD's terror rule over Syria could end within days as rebels enter Damascus and seize several major cities with little pushback.

Western officials have suggested President Bashar al-Assad could finally be ousted as the rebels embarrass the dictator by releasing images of him in Speedos found in his seized palace.

Rebels moving in from the north took control of the country's third biggest city Homs yesterday, on the road to Damascus.

Rebels attacking from the south now claim to control the southern neighbourhood of Darayya as they get closer to overthrowing the dictator.

The militants' lightning advance has been unprecedented - seizing key cities, towns, and now parts of the capital within days as the regime collapses.

An anonymous US official predicted the dictator's reign could be toppled in five to ten days while another suggested he could be removed next week, according to Reuters.

Homs has proved to be a major loss for Assad due to its geographic significance.

The city lies at a crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean, meaning the dictator and his troops have lost access to one of his coastal strongholds and a Russian air and naval base.

This huge win for the rebels has left Assad with control of just three of the 14 provincial capitals, which are Damascus, Tartus, and Latakia.

Another huge blow and embarrassment for the dictator was the rebels seizing his palace in Aleppo last week.

They unearthed and released a photo of a barley-clothed Assad posing for a picture in Speedos as a young man.

The image showed the warmonger posing with three other people dressed in swimwear.

The rebels' shocking and unexpected advances have happened without any major pushback from the dictator or his allies.

Locals of some Damascus suburbs said that troops abandoned their stations and dressed in civilian clothes as rebel groups urged Assad's supporters to defect.

A statue of Assad's father Hafez was toppled in Damascus' eastern suburb of Jaramana, footage on social media shows.

Protesters ripped the head off the giant bust, just six miles from the centre of the city, before attacking posters of Assad and demanding security forces leave the area.

Assad's family has fled to Russia and Egypt has asked the tyrant to form a government in exile, the Wall Street Journal reports.

But butcher Assad claims to still be in the capital and working, the Syrian state news agency said, as the rebels bear down on him.

The UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pederson says the situation in the country is changing by the minute and called for peace talks.

Regime forces have withdrawn from a Syrian Air Force base in the southwest of Damascus as rebel fighters also attack a prison.

It is the first time Assad has been militarily challenged in the city since 2018 after the civil war began in 2011.

His 24-year rule appears to be coming to an end as his own troops flee and the rebels breathe down his neck.

Turkish-backed Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HST) and allies launched an offensive on Assad's government from the northwest corner of the country last week.

They quickly captured Aleppo and have continued advancing south - breaching defences and entering the key city of Homs on Saturday.

But southern rebels, who are known as the Southern Operations Room, rose up at the same time and struck north in a coordinated offensive with HTS.

Towns across the south have been handed over to local rebels as regime forces withdraw to protect Damascus.

Syrian dictator Assad, who used nerve gas on his own people in 2013, continues to hold parts of the west and centre of Syria.

But that might not matter if Assad is booted out of Damascus, captured, or killed by the rebels who have entered the city.

Southern militants took the major southern city of Daraa on Friday evening and allowed government forces to retreat back to Damascus.

For the past three days, those rebels have continued to capture smaller villages and towns on the road to the capital as government forces withdraw.

Some 2,000 of Assad's troops fled across the border to Iraq.

Rebels now control Syria's border with Israel and almost the entire southwest of the country.

The southern rebels claim to also hold a number of towns in the Damascus countryside.

Earlier, the Syrian military said it was repositioning in the south, without acknowledging territorial losses, and denied it was withdrawing from areas near Damascus.

In a statement they said: "Our forces operating in Daraa and as-Suwayda implemented a redeployment, repositioning and established a strong and cohesive defensive and security cordon in that direction."

But war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the "entire surroundings of Damascus"; had seen the withdrawal of regime forces.

The Syrian military has denied the claim about withdrawing around Damascus.

A spokesperson labelled the claim “a false media campaign… by armed terrorist organizations… with the aim of spreading panic and fear among civilians in the Damascus countryside.”

Since HTS' sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled across the country at dizzying speed.