Mystery surrounded the whereabouts of Bashar al-Assad, who was no longer in Damascus when rebels captured the Syrian capital on Sunday, ending more than five decades of his family's rule, Reuters reports.
Two senior army officers said Assad had boarded a plane early on Sunday in Damascus for an unknown destination.
Russia, one of Assad's closest allies, confirmed that Assad had left Syria but did not say where he was, including whether Moscow had given him refuge.
Assad has not spoken in public since the sudden rebel advance a week ago, when insurgents seized northern Aleppo in a surprise attack before marching into a succession of cities as frontlines crumbled.
A Syrian 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 aircraft initially flew towards Syria's coastal region, 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 off the map. Reuters could not ascertain who was on board.
