President Assad has filmed himself driving to newly recaptured territory in Ghouta where close to 1,500 civilians were killed

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad flaunted government advances in Syria's long-running war by filming himself driving to meet frontline soldiers near Damascus.

The visit to the battle front in eastern Ghouta, where state television showed him wildly cheered by soldiers as smoke rose in the distance, came after tens of thousands of civilians began fleeing the opposition area for government lines.




Although Assad has increasingly been seen travelling around Syria in recent years, it is very unusual for him to visit areas close to the battlefront, as he did on Sunday. The president met cheering soldiers as well as civilians who had escaped the fighting.

Notably, there have been numerous other signs of his increasing confidence, including the release last year of a banknote bearing his image for the first time since he became president in 2000.