After 13 years of civil war, Bashar al-Assad’s regime has collapsed as rebels storm his presidential palace in Damascus. The Mailhas more.
The opposition fighters reached the suburbs of the capital yesterday for the first time since the region was recaptured by Government troops in 2018.
Syrian state television showed the rebels milling around inside the despot’s palace after he reportedly this morning fled on a plane to an unknown destination.
Military and intelligence officials are being quizzed by the rebel soldiers about al-Assad’s whereabouts as they try to pinpoint his movements.
The President hasn’t been seen or heard from since rebels stormed the capital city, according to CNN.
Following the capture of Damascus, the HTS (Hayyet Tahrir al-Sham) said on Telegram that it was the end of a dark era and the beginning of a new one.
The rebels said that people displaced or imprisoned under the half-century reign of Assad can now come home.
HTS said it will be a “new Syria” where “everyone lives in peace and justice prevails”. …
As daylight broke over Damascus, crowds gathered to pray in the city’s mosques and to celebrate in the squares, chanting “God is great.” People also chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns.
In the streets, teen boys picked up weapons that had apparently been discarded by security forces and fired them in the air.
Soldiers and police officers left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the Defense Ministry. Videos from Damascus showed families wandering into the presidential palace, with some emerging carrying stacks of plates and other household items.
“I did not sleep last night, and I refused to sleep until I heard the news of his fall,” said Mohammed Amer Al-Oulabi, 44, who works in the electricity sector.
“From Idlib to Damascus, it only took them (the opposition forces) a few days, thank God. May God bless them, the heroic lions who made us proud.”
One resident said the city was on edge, with security forces on the streets and many shops running out of staple foods.
The Syrian army withdrew from much of the country’s south on Saturday but later said it was fortifying positions in the Damascus suburbs and in the south.
Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghany has also said that insurgent forces have “fully liberated” Syria’s central city of Homs. …
The most powerful insurgent leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, said in a statement that rebels were on the cusp of taking the whole country and “the end of the criminal regime is near’. …
The Syrian army and security commanders left Homs on Saturday by helicopter for the coast while a large military convoy withdrew by land, a senior army officer said. Rebels said they were entering the city centre. …
Homs residents and rebels said the insurgents had captured the central prison and were freeing thousands of detainees. Residents said state security and intelligence personnel had evacuated their offices after burning papers.
Syria’s state news agency denied reports that Assad had already fled to Russia claiming he continued to govern from Damascus.
However, following the statement claiming it was “false news”, a source has told CNN that Assad was “nowhere to be found” at his usual residences in the capital. …
The staggering assault has seen rebels opposed to the regime make the fastest battlefield advance by either side since the civil war began almost 13 years ago.
Stop Press: Will Syria’s new rulers restrain their followers from massacring the Alawites who have lorded it over them for so long? wonders Nigel Jones in the Spectator.
Stop Press 2: Putin’s failing support for Assad’s regime risks a surge of refugees into Europe as civilians flee a new wave of violence, warns Eir Nolsøe in the Telegraph.
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