By Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Timour Azhari and Jaida Taha
AMMAN/BEIRUT/CAIRO (Reuters) -Syria’s military command has notified officers that President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule has ended, a Syrian officer who was knowledgeable of the transfer instructed Reuters, following a speedy insurgent offensive that took the world without warning.
Syrian rebels stated Damascus was “now freed from Assad”.
Earlier the chief who crushed all types of dissent flew out of Damascus for an unknown vacation spot on Sunday, two senior military officers instructed Reuters, as rebels stated they’d entered the capital with no signal of military deployments.
Hundreds in vehicles and on foot congregated at a essential sq. in Damascus waving and chanting “Freedom” from the lengthy Assad household rule, witnesses stated.
“We rejoice with the Syrian folks the information of liberating our prisoners and releasing their chains and asserting the tip of the period of injustice in Sednaya jail,” stated the rebels.
Sednaya is a big navy jail on the outskirts Damascus the place the Syrian authorities detained 1000’s.
A Syrian Air aircraft took off from Damascus airport across the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, in line with information from the Flightradar web site.
The plane initially flew in the direction of Syria’s coastal area, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, however then made an abrupt U-turn and flew in the wrong way for a couple of minutes earlier than disappearing off the map.
Reuters couldn’t instantly verify who was on board.
The top of Syria’s essential opposition group overseas Hadi al-Bahra Syrian on Sunday additionally declared that Damascus is now “with out Bashar al-Assad”.
As Syrians expressed pleasure, Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali stated he is able to assist the continuity of governance and is ready to cooperate with any management chosen by the Syrian folks.
The frontlines of Syria’s complicated civil warfare have been dormant for years. Then Islamists as soon as affiliated with Al Qaeda all of the sudden burst into motion, posing the most important problem to Assad, who had survived years of gruelling warfare and worldwide isolation with the assistance of Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
However his allies have been targeted on and weakened by different crises, all of the sudden leaving Assad on the mercy of his opponents.
Simply hours earlier than reaching Damascus, rebels introduced they’d gained full management of the important thing metropolis of Homs after solely a day of preventing, leaving Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread.
Hundreds of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the military withdrew from the central metropolis, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free” and “Lengthy stay Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad”.
Rebels fired into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial management has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the navy.
The autumn of Homs gave the insurgents management over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key freeway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal area that’s the stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect and the place his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.
Homs’ seize can be a robust image of the insurgent motion’s dramatic comeback within the 13-year-old battle. Swathes of Homs have been destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the military years in the past. The preventing floor down the insurgents, who have been pressured out.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the primary insurgent chief, known as the seize of Homs a historic second and urged fighters to not hurt “those that drop their arms”.
Rebels freed 1000’s of detainees from the town jail. Safety forces left in haste after burning their paperwork.
Syrian insurgent commander Hassan Abdul Ghani stated in a press release early Sunday that operations have been ongoing to “utterly liberate” the countryside round Damascus and insurgent forces have been trying towards the capital.
In a single suburb, a statue of Assad’s father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, was toppled and torn aside.
Outdoors the town, rebels swept throughout the whole southwest over 24 hours and established management.
EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO ASSAD RULE
The tempo of occasions has surprised Arab capitals and raised fears of a brand new wave of regional instability.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Russia issued a joint assertion saying the disaster was a harmful growth and calling for a political resolution.
Syria’s civil warfare, which erupted in 2011 as an rebellion in opposition to Assad’s rule, dragged in huge exterior powers, created house for jihadist militants to plot assaults around the globe and despatched thousands and thousands of refugees into neighbouring states.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest insurgent group, is the previous al Qaeda affiliate in Syria regarded by the U.S. and others as a terrorist organisation, and lots of Syrians stay fearful it can impose draconian Islamist rule.
Golani has tried to reassure minorities that he won’t intervene with them and the worldwide group that he opposes Islamist assaults overseas. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured per week in the past, there haven’t been stories of reprisals.
When requested on Saturday whether or not he believed Golani, Russian Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov replied, “The proof of the pudding is within the consuming”.
ALLIES’ ROLE IN SUPPORTING ASSAD
Assad lengthy rule relied on allies to subdue the rebels. Russian warplanes carried out bombing whereas Iran despatched allied forces together with Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to bolster the Syrian navy and storm rebel strongholds.
However Russia has been targeted on the warfare in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered huge losses in its personal gruelling warfare with Israel, considerably limiting its potential or that of Iran to bolster Assad.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has stated the U.S. shouldn’t be concerned within the battle and will “let it play out”.
