Sure...

 As AP reports. 

Jihadist groups in Syria have reached the suburbs of Damascus as part of a rapidly progressing offensive that has overrun some of Syria’s largest cities, the Associated Press wrote on Saturday, quoting opposition leaders and an Islamist commander. The Syrian presidency has refuted rumors that President Bashar Assad has left Damascus, adding that false reports of his departure from the Syrian capital have been spread by foreign outlets in an attempt to “mislead and influence” the country’s population.

This "source", should not obscure the fact that SAA performed dismally and, as is always the case with Arab militaries, has its general staff overwhelmed with panic. It is now very clear, that regular Arab armies, while having some competent and courageous people, cannot fight unless propped up by external force, such as Iranians and Russians. SAA left Palmira, or rather ran away from it. You can bet your ass on Russia's support for Damascus:

We are absolutely convinced of the inadmissibility of using terrorists like Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to achieve geopolitical goals, as it is now being done by orchestrating the offensive in the Idlib de-escalation zone,” Lavrov stated on Sunday, after meeting with the Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers in Qatar.The foreign ministers of Türkiye, Iran, and Russia met in Doha on Saturday to discuss the lightning rebel advance in Syria.The militant group Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of Jabhat al-Nusra, along with its allies, launched a surprise offensive against Syrian government forces last week, capturing large swaths of territory, including parts of Aleppo and the city of Hama. The Syrian military has redeployed forces to threatened regions, with the support of Russian warplanes.

The cultural problem with Arab militaries remains. Same goes for Western militaries which are good fighting wars only on paper or against said incompetent Arab militaries. But, as Larry notes astutely:

Damn Bernard at Moon of Alabama (just kidding)! He took the keyboard right out of my hand with his latest piece, U.S. Has Stopped Ukrainian ATACMS Strikes On Russia. That’s what I intended to write tonight. Instead of me regurgitating his piece, go read it. We learned yesterday that Russia’s top general, Gerasimov, called US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charlie Brown, on November 27th. We do not know what was said in that conversation, but we do know that no more ATACMs, Storm Shadows or SCALPS have been launched into Russian territory since that conversation. You don’t need an advanced degree in logic to surmise that Russia warned the United States (and told them to pass it on to its NATO partners) that the Russian Oreshnik missile was a warning and that Russia would hit NATO bases if further attacks occurred. Guess what? Since that phone call, no more missile launches into Russia. Instead, Ukraine is still sending drones that are being routinely shot down. This means that the US and NATO are no longer providing attack coordinates to the Ukrainians. In this game of stare down, the West blinked.

This is the main news. And proceedings in Syria should be viewed only within this framework--desperation moves. Now Oreshnik goes to Belarus too. It has nothing to do with the range (Oreshnik's range cover all of Europe and Middle East)--it has everything to do with Russia exercising an overwhelming conventional escalation dominance over NATO. The only thing NATO has is to escalate to nuclear threshold, Russia, meanwhile, will be calmly continuing counting her escalation domination ladder steps conventionally--it is great when having almost a total freedom for maneuvering. 

P.S. We have our dearest friends from Russia staying with us and, as you may have guessed it, I am extremely busy. So, I apologize for going AWOL. Bear with me for a couple more days)).