Where is Assad?

No one has heard from Bashar al-Assad.

He didn't make a speech and his exit was unannounced. And it seems none of the Syrians currently enjoying themselves by looking around his Damascus residencies have found him there either.

Reportedly, Assad boarded a plane shortly before the rebels took the capital overnight.

According to open-source data from the online tracker Flightradar24.com, a Syrian Air Ilyushin Il-76T aircraft took off from Damascus airport and was initially headed towards Syria's coastal region when the rebels stormed the capital.

However, the jet abruptly reversed course and flew in the opposite direction for several minutes before vanishing from radar near the city of Homs.

Two Syrian sources told Reuters "there was a very high probability that Assad may have been killed if he was on the plane".

"It disappeared off the radar, possibly the transponder was switched off, but I believe the bigger probability is that the aircraft was taken down...," said one Syrian source, without elaborating.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Assad's wife and children were in Russia.

Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati official, said he did not know whether the deposed president had gone to the UAE.