Syrian government falls to fast-moving rebels, ending 50 years of iron rule by Assad family

Beirut: The Syrian government has collapsed, falling to a lightning rebel offensive that seized control of the capital, Damascus, and sent crowds into the streets to celebrate the end of the Assad family’s 50 years of iron-fisted rule.

Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying President Bashar al-Assad had been overthrown, and all prisoners had been set free.

The man who read the statement said the opposition group, known as the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus, called on all rebel fighters and citizens to preserve the institutions of “the free Syrian state”.

The statement emerged hours after the head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus following a remarkably swift advance across the country.

Many of the capital’s residents were in disbelief at the speed at which Assad lost his hold on the country after nearly 14 years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million and drew in several foreign powers.

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 Defence 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.”

Rebel forces led by HTS in the city centre of Homs.Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images

Thousands in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus, waving and chanting “freedom”, witnesses said.

“We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice in Sednaya Prison,” the rebels said.

Sednaya is a large military prison on the outskirts of Damascus where the Syrian government detained thousands.

But the Syrian army later said it was continuing operations against “terrorist groups” in the towns of Hama and Homs and Deraa countryside.

Assad’s departure marks the end of the 54-year iron-fisted rule of the Assad family in Syria. His father, Hafez al-Assad, rose to power in a bloodless coup in 1970 and ruled until his death in 2000.

Bashar al-Assad was elected weeks after his father’s death and ruled Syria until he was overthrown on Sunday.

The rebels declared on Telegram the end of “the dark period and the beginning of a new era in Syria”.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said on Sunday that the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government.

Opposition fighters arrive to cheers in the Syrian capital on Sunday.Credit: AP

“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalali said in a video statement. He would go to his office to continue work in the morning, he said, and called on Syrian citizens not to deface public property.

He called for Syria to hold free elections to allow its people to decide their leadership.

Jalali did not address reports that Assad had left the country. Assad and the Syrian defence minister’s whereabouts were unknown, the prime minister said.

There has been speculation Assad could flee to the United Arab Emirates, where his extended family is known to own properties in Dubai. Flight-tracking data showed private jets moving between Damascus and the UAE on Saturday.

When senior Emirati diplomat Anwar Gargash was faced with a question directly asking him if Assad was going to the UAE, he dismissed it, saying it was a “footnote in history”, without answering.

A Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus airport around the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, data from the Flightradar website said.

A giant portrait of Bashar al-Assad sits on a building in Damascus.Credit: AP

The aircraft initially flew towards Syria’s coastal region, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, before making an abrupt U-turn and flying in the opposite direction for a few minutes, then disappearing off the map.

Reuters could not immediately ascertain who was on board.

Hours earlier, rebels announced they had gained full control of the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting, leaving Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread.

Thousands of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the army withdrew from the central city, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free” and “Long live Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad”.

People arrive at the Jordanian side of the border as others wait in their cars on Saturday, after a ban on crossings into Syria.Credit: Getty Images

Rebels fired guns into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial control collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the military.

The fall of Homs gave the insurgents control over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal region that is the Alawite sect’s stronghold and where Assad’s Russian allies have a naval and an air base.

Homs’ capture was also a powerful symbol of the rebel movement’s dramatic comeback in the 13-year-old conflict. Swaths of Homs were destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the army years ago – fighting that ground down the insurgents, who were forced out.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) commander Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the main rebel leader, called the capture of Homs a historic moment and urged fighters not to harm “those who drop their arms”.

In one suburb, a statue of Assad’s father was toppled and torn apart.

Since the rebels’ sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled at a dizzying speed as insurgents seized a string of major cities and rose in places where the rebellion had long seemed over.

The advances were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organisation by the US and the United Nations. The insurgents have met little resistance from the Syrian Army.

The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition”.

Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, Pedersen said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad’s chief international backer, said he felt “sorry for the Syrian people”.

In Damascus, people rushed to stock up on supplies. Thousands went to Syria’s border with Lebanon, trying to leave the country.

Many shops in the city were shuttered, a resident told the Associated Press, and those still open had run out of staples such as sugar. Some were selling items at three times the normal price.

“The situation is very strange. We are not used to that,” the resident said, insisting on anonymity for fear of retributions.

Assad has had little, if any, help from his allies. Russia is busy with its war in Ukraine, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up Assad’s forces, has been weakened by a year-long conflict with Israel. Iran has had its proxies across the region degraded by regular Israeli airstrikes.

Israel, which has severely weakened the Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, will likely celebrate the fall of Assad, another of Iran’s key regional allies. But the prospect of an Islamist group ruling Syria will likely raise concerns.

US President Joe Biden and his team were monitoring the “extraordinary events in Syria” and in touch with regional partners, the White House said.

A Syrian opposition fighter holds a rocket launcher in front of the provincial government office.Credit: AP

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that the US should avoid engaging militarily in Syria.

Pedersen said a date for talks in Geneva on implementing a 2015 UN resolution calling for a Syrian-led political process would be announced later. The resolution calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with UN-supervised elections.

Foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, along with Pedersen, gathered on the sidelines of the Doha summit on Saturday to discuss the situation.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Russia issued a joint statement that said the crisis was a dangerous development and called for a political solution. Turkey is the main backer of the rebels.

HTS controls much of north-west Syria and, in 2017, set up a “salvation government” to run daily affairs in the region. In recent years, HTS leader Jolani has sought to remake the group’s image, cutting ties with al-Qaeda, ditching hardline officials and vowing to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance.

The Syrian government has referred to opposition gunmen as terrorists since the conflict broke out in March 2011, and many Syrians remain fearful the rebel group will impose draconian Islamist rule.

Jolani has tried to reassure minorities that he will not interfere with them and the international community that he opposes Islamist attacks abroad. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured a week ago, there have not been reports of reprisals.

Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.Credit: Al Jazeera

When asked on Saturday whether he believed Jolani, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov replied: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating”.

The shock offensive began on November 27, during which rebel fighters captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central city of Hama, the country’s fourth-largest city.

The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability.

Qatar’s top diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticised Assad for failing to take advantage of the lull in fighting in recent years to address the country’s underlying problems.

“Assad didn’t seize this opportunity to start engaging and restoring his relationship with his people,” he said.

AP, Reuters

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