Damascus: Hated dictator is out on his Assad

Islamist-led rebels declared they had taken Damascus in a lightning offensive on Sunday, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria.

Residents in the Syrian capital were seen cheering in the streets, as the rebel factions heralded the departure of “tyrant” Assad, saying: “We declare the city of Damascus free.”

AFPTV images from Damascus showed rebels firing into the air at sunrise, with some flashing the victory sign and crying “Allahu akbar”, or God is greatest.

Some climbed atop a tank in celebration, while others defaced a toppled statue of Assad’s father, Hafez.

“I can’t believe I’m living this moment,” tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this day,” he said, adding: “We are starting a new history for Syria.”

The president’s alleged departure, which was also reported by a war monitor, comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group launched its campaign challenging more than five decades of rule by the Assad family.

“After 50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and (forced) displacement... we announce today the end of this dark period and the start of a new era for Syria,” the rebel factions said on Telegram.

Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali said he was ready to cooperate with “any leadership chosen by the Syrian people”.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP: “Assad left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left” the facility.

AFP was unable to immediately confirm the report.

HTS said their fighters broke into a jail on the outskirts of the capital, announcing an “end of the era of tyranny in the prison of Sednaya”, which has become a by-word for the darkest abuses of Assad’s era.

The rapid developments in Damascus came only hours after HTS said they had captured the strategic city of Homs, on the way to the capital.

The defence ministry earlier denied that rebels had entered Homs, describing the situation there as “safe and stable”.

Homs lies about 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the capital and was the third major city seized by the rebels, who began their advance on November 27, reigniting a years-long war that had become largely dormant.

US President Joe Biden was keeping a close eye on the “extraordinary events” unfolding in Syria, the White House said.

- Hezbollah fighters leave -

Monitoring the events in Damascus, the Britain-based Observatory confirmed “the doors of the infamous ‘Sednaya’ prison... have been opened for thousands of detainees who were imprisoned by the security apparatus throughout the regime’s rule”.

Assad’s government had previously denied the army had withdrawn from areas around Damascus.

His rule has for years been backed by Lebanese Hezbollah, whose forces “vacated their positions around Damascus”, a source close to the group said early Sunday.

Reports the president had fled were followed by the premier saying he was ready to “cooperate” with a new leadership and any handover process.

“This country can be a normal country that builds good relations with its neighbours and the world... but this issue is up to any leadership chosen by the Syrian people,” Jalali said in a speech broadcast on his Facebook account.

Rebel factions aired a statement on Syrian state television on Sunday, saying they had toppled the “tyrant” Assad as they called on fighters and citizens to safeguard the “property of the free Syrian state”.

- ‘Liberation of Syria’ -

AFP has been unable to independently verify some of the information provided by Assad’s government and the rebels.

Prior to the announcements on Sunday, residents of the capital described to AFP a state of panic as traffic jams clogged the city centre, with people seeking supplies and queueing to withdraw money from ATMs.

AFPTV images from Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city, showed abandoned tanks and other armoured vehicles, one of them on fire.

Hama resident Kharfan Mansour said he was “happy with the liberation of Hama and the liberation of Syria from the Assad regime”.

Leading up to the rebels’ entry into Damascus, the Islamist-led alliance had wrested away control of Aleppo and Hama and also reached Homs, known during the early years of the civil war as the “capital of the revolution”.

The Observatory said Daraa, the cradle of the 2011 uprising, also fell from government control.

The commander of Syria’s US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls swathes of the country’s northeast, hailed “historic” moments on Sunday with the fall of Assad’s “authoritarian regime”.

Jordan has urged its citizens to leave neighbouring Syria “as soon as possible”, as have the United States and Assad ally Russia, which both keep troops in Syria.

An Iraqi security source told AFP that Baghdad had allowed in hundreds of Syrian soldiers who “fled the front lines” through the Al-Qaim border crossing. A second source put the figure at 2,000 troops, including officers.

- Rooted in Al-Qaeda -

HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has sought to soften its image in recent years, and told minority groups living in areas they now control not to worry.

Since the offensive began, at least 826 people, mostly combatants but also including 111 civilians, have been killed, the Observatory said.

The United Nations said the violence has displaced 370,000 people.

US President-elect Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that “Assad is gone”, adding: “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer.”

Assad was for years propped up by Russia and Iran, while Turkey has historically backed the opposition.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called on Friday for a “political solution to the conflict”, in a call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.