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

DAMASCUS – The Syrian government collapsed early Sunday, succumbing to a lightning offensive by rebels that seized control of the capital Damascus and sent crowds into the streets to celebrate the end of the 50 years of iron rule of the Assad family.

Syrian state television broadcast a video statement by a group of men saying that President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been freed.

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

The statement came hours after the head of a Syrian opposition monitor said Assad had left the country at an undisclosed location, fleeing insurgents who said they had entered Damascus following a remarkably rapid advance across the country.

Many in the capital were in disbelief at the speed with which Assad lost his grip on the country after nearly 14 years of civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million and drawn more many foreign powers. .

Celebrations erupt throughout the capital

As daylight broke over Damascus, crowds gathered to pray in the city’s mosques and celebrate in the squares, chanting “God is great.” People also chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns.

In the streets, teenagers picked up weapons that had apparently been dropped by security forces and fired them into the air.

Soldiers and police officers left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the Ministry of Defense. Videos from Damascus showed families wandering into the presidential palace, some of them carrying stacks of plates and other household items.

“I did not sleep last night and 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 (opposition forces) a few days, thank God. God bless them, the heroic lions who made us proud.”

Meanwhile, organizations that had previously been close to Assad’s government tried to distance themselves from it.

Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, which has been historically pro-government, wrote: “We are facing a new page for Syria. Thank God he didn’t spill more blood. We believe and trust that Syria will be for all Syrians.”

The newspaper added that media workers should not be charged for publishing government statements in the past.

“We only carried out the instructions and published the news they sent us,” it said. “It quickly became clear now that it was fake.”

A statement from the Alawite sect – to which Assad belongs and which formed the core of his base – called on young Syrians to be “calm, rational and cautious and not be dragged into what is tearing apart the unity of our country”.

“We have been and continue to be advocates of peace and advocates of unity,” it says. The statement called for “the language of reason and dialogue to prevail on all sides in the service of Syria and its great people.”

Assad’s whereabouts are unknown

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said in a video statement that the government is ready to “reach out” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government.

He later told the Saudi Al-Arabiyya television network that he did not know where Assad and the defense minister were. He said he lost contact with Assad on Saturday night.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Associated Press that Assad took a flight from Damascus on Sunday.

A senior diplomat from the United Arab Emirates, who had sought to rehabilitate Assad’s image and welcomed prominent exiles in recent years, he declined to comment on his whereabouts when asked by reporters at a conference in Bahrain.

Anwar Gargash said Assad’s destination at this point is a “footnote in history”, comparing it to the long exile of German Kaiser Wilhelm II after the First World War.

Assad he was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war, including a 2013 chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of the capital.

There was no immediate comment from Iran, which had been Assad’s staunchest supporter. Iran’s embassy in Damascus has been looted after apparently being abandoned. AP images showed broken windows and documents scattered in the lobby.

Entry into Damascus limits lightning advance

Opposition forces have not entered Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a years-long siege.

The night before, opposition forces took the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it. The city is at an important crossroads between Damascus, the capital, and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus – the base of support for the Syrian leader and home to a strategic Russian naval base.

The rebels had already captured the cities of Aleppo and yapas well as large parts of the south in a rapid offensive that began on 27 November.

The advances in the last week they were by far the largest in recent years by opposition factions led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. In their effort to topple Assad’s government, the insurgents, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, met little resistance from the Syrian army.

The UN is calling for an “orderly transition” as it remains unclear what comes next

HTS established a “rescue government” in 2017 to administer a large region of northwestern Syria under its control. In recent years, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to rebuild the group’s image by severing ties with al-Qaida, ditching hardline officials and vowing to embrace religious pluralism and tolerance.

“Golani made history and sparked hope among millions of Syrians,” said Dareen Khalifa, senior adviser to the International Crisis Group and an expert on Syrian groups. “But he and the rebels now face a formidable challenge. You can only hope they rise to the occasion.”

The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, called for urgent talks in Geneva on Saturday to ensure an “orderly political transition”. Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country is Assad’s main international backer, said he felt “pity for the Syrian people”.

Israel’s military said on Sunday it had deployed forces to a demilitarized buffer zone along its northern border with Syria following a rebel offensive there.

The army, which said it had also sent troops to “other places necessary for its defense”, said the deployment was meant to provide security to residents of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East war, and the international community, except for the United States, considers it occupied.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Sarah El Deeb and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Samar Kassballi in Damascus, Jon Gambrell in Manama, Bahrain and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed.