A fourth member of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s inner circle died Friday from a bomb attack this week and his forces fought to recapture border posts and parts of Damascus from fighters who have converged on the capital.

As refugees flooded across Syria’s borders and UN officials said they had heard banks in Damascus had run out of cash, Russia’s envoy to Paris added to a sense Assad’s days were numbered by saying he had accepted he would have to leave power. Syrian state television flashed a government statement soon afterwards saying the comments were “completely devoid of truth”.

Clashes continued in Damascus for a sixth day and at least three people were killed when Syrian army helicopters fired rockets at the southeastern neighborhood of Saida Zeinab, opposition activists said.

Fighters from elsewhere in Syria have poured into the capital for what they say is the final battle for Damascus.

“The regime is going through its last days,” Abdelbasset Seida, the leader of the main Syrian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, said in Rome, predicting a possible dramatic escalation in violence.

Clashes were fiercest overnight in the sprawling Mezzeh district, where fighters appear to be sustaining attacks on many security compounds located there, residents said.

Residents in central Damascus said shops were closed, roads were empty and only a handful of people were outside. “We have heard reports that many of the banks have just run out of money,” Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman for the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR, told a briefing in Geneva.

Residents reported a lack of government checkpoints in the heart of the city.