Rebels find embarrassing photo of Syrian president in small swim trunks as they capture Homs and government faces possible collapse within the week

Bashar al-Assad has been mocked after rebels unearthed a photo of the Syrian president wearing nothing but a tiny pair of Speedos.

Following a lightning rebel advance in Syria last week, Jihadi rebels came across a photo of the Syrian leader scantily clad as a young man.

The image shows the dictator posing alongside three other people in swimsuits as they are perched on the side of a boat in the night.

The picture quickly gained attention on social media, with one person writing: ‘A picture found in the palace of the idiot and criminal Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo.’

The funny reaction online comes amid reports from Western officials that Assad’s government could fall within the next week.

It has now been revealed that Syrian government forces have abandoned the key city of Homs after less than a day of fighting, leaving Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread with insurgents also advancing towards the capital Damascus.

Since the rebels’ sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled at dizzying speed as rebels seized a string of major cities and reignited a rebellion in places it had long seemed dead.

The fall of Homs and threat to the capital now pose an immediate existential danger to the Assad dynasty’s five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran.

The most powerful insurgent leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, said in a statement that rebels were on the cusp of taking the whole country and ‘the end of the criminal regime is near’.

Assad’s government may be on the verge of collapse, foreign officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. One U.S. official put the potential timeframe at five to 10 days while another said Assad could be ousted in the coming week. A Western official agreed with the latter assessment.

Seizing Homs, an important crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean, effectively cuts off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, and from Russia’s air and naval base.

The Syrian army and security commanders left Homs on Saturday by helicopter for the coast while a large military convoy withdrew by land, a senior army officer said. Rebels said they were entering the city centre.

Thousands poured onto the streets there to celebrate, residents said.

Homs residents and rebels said the insurgents had captured the central prison and were freeing thousands of detainees. Residents said state security and intelligence personnel had evacuated their offices after burning papers.

Earlier today, it was reported that Syrian opposition fighters reached the suburbs of the Damascus capital for the first time since the region was recaptured by government troops in 2018, as Assad’s regime nears collapse.

One resident said the city was on edge, with security forces on the streets and many shops running out of staple foods.

The Syrian army withdrew from much of the country’s south on Saturday but later said it was fortifying positions in the Damascus suburbs and in the south. 

Syria’s state news agency denied reports that Assad had already fled to Russia claiming he continued to govern from Damascus.

However, following the statement claiming it was ‘false news’, a source has told CNN that Assad was ‘nowhere to be found’ at his usual residences in the capital.

Lebanon said it is closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for a main one that links Beirut with Damascus. Jordan closed a border crossing with Syria because of the security situation on the Syrian side.

The rapidly developing events in Syria have again put the region on edge.

Government forces reportedly withdrew as rebel groups amassed in the city’s suburbs, wrestling for control after more than a week of intensified fighting.

Armed groups reached the suburb of Darayya this afternoon, some five miles from the centre, according to the Turkish Anadolu Agency.

‘Our forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital, Damascus,’ said rebel commander Hassan Abdel Ghani today, with the Islamist-led alliance that launched the offensive 10 days ago. 

‘Damascus awaits you,’ HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said in a statement Saturday addressed to rebel fighters on Telegram.

Syrians still in the nominally government-controlled territory of Jaramana seized the opportunity to pull down a statue of Assad’s father as the regime faces collapse.

To the north, rebel troops made a lunge towards the strategic city of Homs, just days after they proclaimed a major victory in the taking of the city of Hama on Thursday.

The staggering assault has seen rebels opposed to the regime make the fastest battlefield advance by either side since the civil war began almost 13 years ago.

Assad’s office said today that the President was staying put in the capital and continuing his duties after his children and British-born wife fled to Russia last week, and his brothers-in-law allegedly travelled to the UAE, per Syrian security officials.

Assad’s allies in Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, distracted or worn-down by other conflicts, meanwhile showed no signs of intervening.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told CNN that Turkey wishes that neighboring Syria can ‘quickly attain the peace and tranquility it has longed for’ during 13 years of civil conflict.

He said: ‘I want to say this openly: We do not have our eyes on land — not even a pebble — that belongs to another country.’

Charles Lister, director of the Syria and countering terrorism and extremism programs at the Middle East Institute, told Bloomberg that Assad’s future has ‘never looked more fragile’ as the opposition encroaches on Homs and allied support withers.

While capturing Homs could close the land route between the government and Tartus, home to Russia’s only Mediterranean port, Russia appears not to be in a position to help Assad regain ground with focus and resources directed to Ukraine.

‘Russia doesn’t have a plan to save Assad and doesn’t see one emerging as long as the Syrian president’s army continues to abandon its positions,’ a source ‘close to the Kremlin’ told Bloomberg.

Iran, likewise, has been hesitant, or unable, to funnel its support to Syria. On Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would would only help Assad ‘to the extent necessary’, but previously promised to ‘consider’ sending troops.

The capture of Hama has given rebel forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), control of a strategic central city they never managed to seize before.

Jihad Yazigi, editor of the Syria Report newsletter previously told Reuters: ‘Assad now cannot afford to lose anything else. The big battle is the one coming against Homs. If Homs falls, we are talking of a potential change of regime.’

It follows a staggering effort to seize Aleppo, the main northern city in Syria, last week as part of a blitz offensive beginning on November 27.

The collapse of Syrian government control in the north has sharply illustrated a shift in the balance of power since Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, a lynchpin of Assad’s forces, suffered catastrophic losses in its war with Israel.

While Hezbollah has reportedly sent 2,000 fighters to Syria, per a source close to the Iran-backed proxy group today, Assad’s backing from allies continues to wither.

Rebel forces were just 12 miles (20km) from Damascus by 11am GMT on Saturday, posing an imminent threat to the capital, according to a war monitor and rebels.

The Syrian army reportedly withdrew its forces from all towns about 10km (6.2 miles) from the capital, a monitor reported soon after.

The Syrian defence ministry, loyal to Assad, denied the army had fled positions.

‘There is no truth to news claiming our armed forces, present in all areas of the Damascus countryside, have withdrawn,’ it said.

The Syrian government was also forced to evacuate from its positions in Quneitrea, near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, the main ally of the US against the regime, meanwhile seized key areas in Deir ez Zor and Raqqa on December 6, making it harder for Iran to move forces in to help Assad or resupply Iranian-backed forces like Hezbollah.