SYRIA’S government has fallen in a stunning end to the 24-year rule of Bashar al-Assad after rebels seized Damascus in a lightning blitz.
Assad fled the capital in a plane early on Sunday as the butcher’s regime was overthrown by the militants in just 10 days.
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Rebels are celebrating in Damascus after they seized control of the countryCredit: AP
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Fighters celebrate at Umayyad Square in Damascus on Sunday morningCredit: AFP
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A Syrian opposition fighter sits at a desk inside an office at the palaceCredit: AP
The hunt for the tyrant – notorious for nerve gas attacks on children – now begins after he escaped to an unconfirmed hideout and a plane fleeing Syria vanished off radars.
Syria’s rebels stormed into Damascus on Saturday after seizing cities and towns in an almost unchecked advance.
The fall of Assad is a humiliating blow for Vladimir Putin and Iran who had backed the tyrant during the civil war.
Syria has been shattered by more than 13 years of conflict that has turned cities to rubble, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and forced millions abroad as refugees.
Syria’s army command has notified officers that Assad’s rule is over – while rebels said Damascus is now “free of Assad”, Reuters reported.
It comes as…
- Rebels say Damascus is now ‘free of Assad’ as thousands take to streets of capital
- Assad leaves Syrian capital on plane for unknown destination
- Rebel commander says they have seized control of Homs – the country’s third biggest city
- Syria’s Prime Minister says he is ‘ready to hand over power’ as he’s escorted from home by rebels
- Israel deploys forces to UN-monitored buffer zone of the Golan Heights but ‘won’t interfere’
- Trump says US should have ‘nothing to do’ with Syrian uprising
Thousands have taken to the streets in celebration, firing guns into the air, lighting flares, and waving the rebel flag.
LOOTING OF THE PALACE
It marks the end of 50 years of rule by the Assad family – with rebels shouting “freedom” while celebrating and looting the embassies of Assad’s allies and the dictator’s palace.
Delighted fighters have posted footage from inside Assad’s presidential palace as they celebrate their stunning win.
Watch Syrian rebels storm Assad’s palace after seizing second city Aleppo
The rebels have ransacked the palace, going room from room looting items of value including Louis Vuitton and other prized possessions.
A video features scores of people raiding the cupboards while duvets and linen bed sheets are on the floor.
One person was seen holding an orange Louis Vuitton box while others carried bags bulging with looted items.
Militants have also stormed and looted the Iranian embassy as well as the Italian embassy, while the Iraqi embassy has been evacuated to Lebanon.
The Italian ambassador was unharmed in the break-in by an armed group of rebels who stole three cars from the garden before fleeing.
The ambassador and his security have since been placed in a secure location as rebels continue their siege across the city.
Syrians have also reportedly been seen leaving the country’s Central Bank with bags stuffed full of cash.
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Syrian rebel fighters take a selfie inside the palaceCredit: AP
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Looters have ransacked the palace going from room to room and searching all cupboards for prized possessionsCredit: Instagram/Feras_m79
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One looter was seen carrying a Louis Vuitton bag and rebels pushed passed each other on the stairs in the palaceCredit: Instagram/Feras_m79
The rebels have also opened the cells of a military prison in Damascus where Assad dumped anyone who threatened his rule.
Government soldiers captured by the rebels have been paraded through the streets under the watch of armed guards.
The country’s prime minister said the regime was now preparing to hand over its operations to the rebels.
Fighters frogmarched PM from his home to their hotel headquarters as the transition began.
ASSAD FLEES
Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, said Assad took a flight from Damascus early Sunday.
US officials believe he was intending to travel to Moscow as the Russian foreign ministry confirmed that he has left the country and gave orders for a peaceful handover.
The move came after negotiations with “a number of participants in the armed conflict,” Russia added.
There has been no official statement from Assad’s government.
In a statement read out on Syrian TV, rebel fighters declared victory and said: “Long live Syria, free and proud for all Syrians of all sects.
“The city of Damascus has been liberated, the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown, and all unjustly detained prisoners have been released from the regime’s prisons.”
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Syrian President Bashar Assad has now fled the country, Russia has confirmedCredit: AP
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Syrian rebel fighters and locals celebrate after seizing the central city of HomsCredit: AFP
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Syrian rebel fighters parade detained members of the Syrian government’s forcesCredit: AFP
Statues of the Assad family have been toppled around the country with a bust of Hafez being decapitated late Saturday.
In a victory statement, rebels congratulated the country on overthrowing Assad.
The Syrian National Coalition said: “The great Syrian revolution has broken decades of tyranny and oppression, giving birth to a new Syria.
“Today, it has moved from the struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria that honours the sacrifices of its people.”
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Syrians reportedly are trying to cross back into their country from LebanonCredit: Sky News
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People celebrate on a tank in the centre of DamascusCredit: AFP
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Looting has also taken place at the Iranian embassy in DamascusCredit: AFP
It also declared a commitment to transfer power to a transitional governing body and aim “for a free, democratic, and pluralistic Syria”.
A curfew in Damascus has been announced by rebels starting at 4 pm local time until 5 am.
Russia has put all of its military bases on high alert and has “appealed to all parties involved with a strong call to renounce the use of violence and solve all governance issues through political means.”
Two Lebanese security sources have told Reuters that Hezbollah has withdrawn all of its forces from the country after it helped support Assad’s regime as a proxy of Iran.
But as Syrians celebrate in the Israeli-occupied buffer zone in the Golan Heights which was captured from Syria in 1967, almost 300 miles away, suspected airstrikes from Israel have hit Damascus.
The security sources told Reuters that suspected Israeli airstrikes struck the Mazzeh district on Sunday.
It is further believed that Israel bombed the Khlakhuala air base in the south of the country overnight.
It comes after the IDF was deployed in the Golan buffer zone in preparation for chaos following the toppling of Assad.
BLITZ TO POWER
Rebel fighters attacking from the south arrived in Damascus yesterday after quickly advancing through the countryside.
Last night, opposition forces also seized control of the key city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it.
UK government welcomes reports of Assad’s fall
The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has welcomed Assad’s fall.
Rayner told Sky News the situation in Syria “looks very serious”.
She said: “If (the) Assad regime has fallen, then I welcome that news, but what we need to see is a political resolution in line with the UN resolutions.
“We need to see civilians and infrastructure protected, far too many people have lost their lives, we need stability in that region.”
Rayner also added the British government is working to evacuate nationals in the country.
She did not say how many British nationals are in Syria but said the Foreign Office had been working over the weekend to help them leave.
She added: “We’ve had a plan to ensure that people were evacuated ahead of what’s happened over the weekend, and we continue to support our UK nationals.
Rayner later said Mr Assad “wasn’t exactly good to the Syrian people”, before adding: “Dictatorship and terrorism creates problems for the people of Syria, who have faced so much already and also destabilises the region.
“That’s why we have to have a political solution where the government is acting in the interests of the Syrian people.”
It was the first time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018 when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a years-long siege.
Regime forces appeared to melt away against the offensive which attacked in a coordinated fashion from the north and south.
A number of countries have closed border crossings with Syria as the chaos unfolds, including Lebanon and Jordan.
All pro-Iranian forces have reportedly withdrawn from the country in a humiliating blow to the Ayatollah.
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The Iranian embassy was stormed by rebel fighters as they declared victory in DamascusCredit: AFP
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An opposition fighter steps on a broken bust of Assad’s father and former president HafezCredit: AP
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Rebels torched a court in Damascus on SaturdayCredit: AP
Iran has lost a key ally in its Shia axis across proxies and allies in the Middle East.
The fall of Assad is also a humiliating blow for Vladimir Putin who had backed the tyrant during the civil war.
In return, the Kremlin was allowed to operate two military bases inside Syria.
One of those was a naval base – giving the Russians a port in the Mediterranean.
But those bases might now be under threat as the rebels look to boot the Russians out of the country.
‘WATERSHED MOMENT’
Geir Pedersen, the United Nations’ special envoy to Syria, said today “marks a watershed moment in Syria’s history”.
He says the country has faced “relentless suffering and unspeakable loss” in its 14 years of civil war.
He adds: “This dark chapter has left deep scars, but today we look forward with cautious hope to the opening of a new one—one of peace, reconciliation, dignity, and inclusion for all Syrians.”
The end of Assad’s rule marks the end of his brutal reign that crushed any dissent.
In 2013, Assad used sarin nerve gas on his own people in a chemical attack to terrorise his own people.
Hundreds of people died and thousands were injured after Assad struck civilian areas controlled by rebels.
The US has declared it intends to maintain a presence in eastern Syria that it says is necessary to fight ISIS.
However, incoming president Donald Trump stated in a social media post he wants little to do with the toppling of Assad’s regime.
In a post, he said: “This is not our fight… Let it play out. Do not get involved!”
WORLD LEADERS REACT
Other world leaders have more confidently come out in support of the fall of Assad’s regime.
French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron took to social media to pay tribute to the people of Syria.
“The barbaric state has fallen. At last,” he wrote.
“I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience.
“In this moment of uncertainty, I send them my wishes for peace, freedom, and unity.
“France will remain committed to the security of all in the Middle East.”
Meanwhile the UK Government “welcomes the news” of Assad’s fall as Spain’s foreign minister says the country supports a “peaceful” and “stable” solution for Syria.
Jose Manuel Albares said Madrid wants “any solution for the future of Syria to be a peaceful one… that benefits the Syrian people and in some way brings new stability to the Middle East and not more instability.”
The German Foreign Office has called the end of the Assad regime “a big relief for millions of people in Syria” while saying the ousted President “must be held accountable” for the atrocities during the war.
However, Germany warned that Syrians “deserve a better future” and that the country “must not fall into the hands of other radicals.”
It called on “all parties to the conflict to act with regard to their responsibility for all Syrians.”
A timeline of the Syrian civil war
The sudden collapse of Assad’s rule over Syria could mark the end of a nearly 14-year civil war in the country.
2011 – The first protests against Assad quickly spread across the country, and are met by security forces with a wave of arrests and shootings.Some protesters take up guns and military units defect as the uprising becomes an armed revolt that will gain support from Western and Arab countries and Turkey.
2012 – A bombing in Damascus is the first by al Qaeda’s new Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, which gains in power and starts crushing groups with a nationalist ideology.
World powers meet in Geneva and agree on the need for a political transition, but their divisions on how to achieve it will foil years of U.N.-sponsored peace efforts.
Assad turns his air force on opposition strongholds, as rebels gain ground and the war escalates with massacres on both sides.
2013 – Lebanon’s Hezbollah helps Assad to victory at Qusayr, halting rebel momentum and showing the Iran-backed group’s growing role in the conflict.
Washington has declared chemical weapons use a red line, but a gas attack on rebel-held eastern Ghouta near Damascus kills scores of civilians without triggering a U.S. military response.
2014 – Islamic State group suddenly seizes Raqqa in the northeast and swathes more territory in Syria and Iraq.
Rebels in the Old City of Homs surrender, agreeing to move to an outer suburb – their first big defeat in a major urban area and a precursor to future “evacuation” deals.
Washington builds an anti-Islamic State coalition and starts air strikes, helping Kurdish forces turn the jihadist tide but creating friction with its ally Turkey.
2015 – With better cooperation and more arms from abroad, rebel groups gain more ground and seize northwestern Idlib, but Islamist militants are taking a bigger role.
Russia joins the war on Assad’s side with air strikes that turn the conflict against the rebels for years to come.
2016 – Alarmed by Kurdish advances on the border, Turkey launches an incursion with allied rebels, making a new zone of Turkish control.
The Syrian army and its allies defeat rebels in Aleppo, seen at the time as Assad’s biggest victory of the war.
The Nusra Front splits from al Qaeda and starts trying to present itself in a moderate light, adopting a series of new names and eventually settling on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
2017 – Israel acknowledges air strikes against Hezbollah in Syria, aiming to degrade the growing strength of Iran and its allies.
U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces defeat Islamic State in Raqqa. That offensive, and a rival one by the Syrian army, drive the jihadist group from nearly all its land.
2018 – The Syrian army recaptures eastern Ghouta, before quickly retaking the other insurgent enclaves in central Syria, and then the rebels’ southern bastion of Deraa.
2019 – Islamic State loses its last scrap of territory in Syria. The U.S. decides to keep some troops in the country to prevent attacks on its Kurdish allies.
2020 – Russia backs a government offensive that ends with a ceasefire with Turkey that freezes most front lines. Assad holds most territory and all main cities, appearing deeply entrenched. Rebels hold the northwest.
A Turkey-backed force holds a border strip. Kurdish-led forces control the northeast.
2023 – The Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 triggers fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, ultimately reducing the group’s presence in Syria and fatally undermining Assad.
2024 – Rebels launch a new assault on Aleppo. With Assad’s allies focused elsewhere his army quickly collapses. Eight days after the fall of Aleppo the rebels have taken most major cities and enter Damascus, driving Assad from power.
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Syrian rebel fighters celebrate the victory at the entrance of Homs
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People remove a government banner in Damascus as the government was overthrownCredit: AFP
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Rebels fire into the air in celebration after overthrowing the regimeCredit: AFP
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