Syrian rebels storm into Damascus, claim Assad has fled

The Syrian government appeared to have fallen early Sunday as rebel troops declared the capital Damascus “free” after entering the city to scant resistance from forces of the Russia-backed regime of dictator Bashar Assad.

The rebels claimed that Assad had fled the capital, losing his decades-long grip on power, after a lightning offensive by opposition forces in recent days.

“We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” the rebels’ Military Operations Command said in a post on Telegram on Sunday.

“To the displaced all over the world, a free Syria awaits you,” the statement added.

The rebels are a complex grouping and much will now depend on how well they can align their interests. The most prominent elements are an al Qaeda breakaway called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and collections of Turkish-backed militias called the Syrian National Army.

Assad has been in power for 25 years and his family ruled Syria for more than half a century. His Iran- and Russia-allied regime brutally curtailed human rights, deploying chemical weapons against civilians as part of the civil war that has raged in the country since 2011.

The fast-moving rebel insurgency put two of Russia’s strategic military assets — an airbase in the Latakia province and a naval facility in Tartus on the Mediterranean near the Lebanese border — under serious threat, Reuters reported on Saturday. Satellite imagery showed ships had been leaving the Tartus naval base for several days.

Syria’s army command notified officers on Sunday that Assad’s regime had ended, Reuters reported. The Syrian army later said it was continuing operations against “terrorist groups” in the towns of Hama and Homs and Deraa countryside, according to the report.

Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying that Assad has been overthrown and all detainees in jails have been set free, the Associated Press reported. The man who read the statement said the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus, an opposition group, called on all opposition fighters and citizens to preserve state institutions of “the free Syrian state,” according to the report.

The head of a Syrian opposition war monitor had said earlier that Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus following the remarkably swift advance across the country, according to media reports.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and turn its functions over to a transitional government, the AP reported. “I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalili, who was appointed prime minister in September, said in a video statement. He did not address reports that Assad had fled.

Reuters quoted rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani as saying on Sunday that Syrian state institutions will be supervised by Jalali until they are handed over. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Jalali said he had been in contact with Sharaa to discuss managing the current transitional period, and said Syria should hold free elections, Reuters reported.

Syrian rebels encircled Damascus on Saturday after a lightning offensive that saw the opposition forces take control of key cities in the country.

On Friday, the Syrian army confirmed it had lost control of the strategic city of Hama to the rebels.

The rebels seized Syria’s largest city of Aleppo late last month in an effective offensive, forcing government forces to withdraw.

Statues of Assad’s father and brother were toppled in now rebel-held cities, as well as in Damascus suburbs. 

The Russian Embassy in Damascus advised Russian citizens to leave Syria “in the light of the difficult military and political situation.”

The foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran reportedly met in Doha and agreed on the necessity to put an immediate end to “hostilities” in Syria, according to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Russians getting pushed out of Syria was  “the best thing that can happen to them” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

This story is being updated.