Supporters of the Christian Phalange celebration and the Lebanese Forces Get together collect to rejoice in Beirut’s neighbourhood of Achrafieh on December 8, 2024, after Islamist-led rebels declared that they’ve taken the Syrian capital. | Photograph by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad fled Syria as Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus Sunday, triggering celebrations throughout the nation and past on the finish of his oppressive rule.
Russian information companies late Sunday mentioned Assad and his household had been in Moscow.
Crowds toured Assad’s luxurious residence after the rebels declared he had fled, a spectacular finish to 5 a long time of brutal Baath celebration authorities.
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The federal government fell 11 days after the rebels started a shock advance greater than 13 years after Assad’s crackdown on anti-government protests ignited Syria’s civil conflict, which had turn into largely dormant till the insurgent push.
“This victory, my brothers, is historic for the area,” Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, chief of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS) that spearheaded the advance, mentioned in an deal with on the landmark Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.
A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is pictured with its body damaged, in a Syrian regime’s Political Safety Department facility on the outskirts of the central metropolis of Hama, following the seize of the realm by anti-government forces, on December 7, 2024 .|Photograph by OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP
US President Joe Biden mentioned Assad must be “held accountable” however known as the nation’s political upheaval a “historic alternative” for Syrians to rebuild their nation.
“The autumn of the regime is a basic act of justice,” Biden mentioned from the White Home.
‘Syria is ours’
Residents cheered within the streets because the insurgent factions heralded the departure of “tyrant” Assad, saying: “We declare the town of Damascus free.”
Celebratory gunfire sounded together with shouts of, “Syria is ours and never the Assad household’s”.
AFP correspondents noticed dozens of males, girls and kids wandering by means of Assad’s trendy, spacious residence whose rooms had been stripped naked.
“I can’t imagine I’m residing this second,” tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha instructed AFP by cellphone.
“We’ve been ready a very long time for at the present time,” he mentioned.
An anti-government fighter celebrates at Umayyad Sq. in Damascus on December 8, 2024. | Photograph by Bakr AL KASSEM / AFP
The insurgent factions on Telegram proclaimed the tip to “50 years of oppression underneath Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and displacement”.
It’s, they mentioned, “the beginning of a brand new period for Syria.”
The international ministry of Assad’s key backer, Russia, had introduced earlier Sunday that Assad had resigned from the presidency and left Syria.
The top of conflict monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, instructed AFP: “Assad left Syria by way of Damascus worldwide airport earlier than the military safety forces left” the ability.
Later Sunday, a Kremlin supply instructed Russian information companies that he and his household had arrived in Moscow the place that they had been granted asylum “on humanitarian grounds”.
‘Historic alternative’
Across the nation, folks toppled statues of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father and the founding father of the repressive system of presidency he inherited.
For the previous 50 years in Syria, even the slightest suspicion of dissent might land one in jail or get one killed.
Throughout their advance, the rebels mentioned that they had freed prisoners, together with on Sunday on the Sednaya facility, infamous for the darkest abuses of Assad’s period.
UN conflict crimes investigators urged these taking cost within the nation to make sure the “atrocities” dedicated underneath Assad’s rule are usually not repeated.
Amnesty Worldwide known as this a “historic alternative” for these chargeable for the abuses in Syria to face justice.
The top of Assad’s rule got here simply hours after HTS mentioned it had captured the strategic metropolis of Homs.
Homs was the third main metropolis seized by the rebels, who started their advance on November 27, the identical day a ceasefire occurred in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah motion.
Hezbollah had supported Assad through the lengthy civil conflict however has been severely weakened by Israeli strikes.
The group’s forces “vacated their positions round Damascus”, a supply near the group mentioned Sunday.
HTS is rooted within the Syrian department of Al-Qaeda however has sought to melt its picture lately. It stays listed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments.
On Sunday afternoon the rebels introduced a curfew within the capital till 5:00 am (0200 GMT) Monday.
The commander of Syria’s US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls a lot of northeast Syria, hailed the autumn of Assad’s “authoritarian regime” as “historic”.
A army council affiliated with the SDF clashed Sunday with Turkish-backed Syrian fighters in Syria’s north, leaving 26 fighters from either side lifeless, the Observatory mentioned, because the Turkish-backed group launched an offensive on the Manbij space.
‘We’re going residence’
The Observatory mentioned Israel had struck authorities safety buildings and weapons depots Sunday on the outskirts of Damascus, in addition to within the japanese Deir Ezzor province.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned the overthrow of Assad was a “historic day within the… Center East” and the autumn of a “central hyperlink in Iran’s axis of evil”.
“It is a direct results of the blows we’ve got inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, Assad’s primary supporters,” he added.
The UN envoy for Syria mentioned the nation was at “a watershed second”. Turkey, which has traditionally backed the opposition, known as for a “clean transition”.
Iran mentioned it anticipated “pleasant” ties with Syria to proceed, at the same time as its embassy in Damascus was vandalised.
For the reason that begin of the insurgent offensive, at the least 910 folks, largely combatants but in addition together with 138 civilians, have been killed, the Observatory mentioned.
Syria’s conflict has killed greater than 500,000 folks, and compelled half of the inhabitants to flee their properties.
Hundreds of thousands fled overseas
“I can barely keep in mind Syria,” mentioned Reda al-Khedr, who was solely 5 years previous when he and his mom escaped Syria’s Homs in 2014.
“However now we’re going to go residence to a liberated Syria,” he instructed AFP in Cairo.
Liberated, however dealing with huge challenges.
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned Sunday the bloc would assist rebuild a Syria that safeguards minorities after Assad’s fall.
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