The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appears to have fallen after rebels advanced into the capital Damascus
They caught government forces by surprise 10 days after a lightning advance by insurgents first began, Diaspora Digital Media gathered.
Early Sunday morning local time, the rebel military operations command for the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, claimed the president was no longer in the capital, writing: “We declare the city of Damascus free of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad.”
There was no independent verification of the claim.
However, videos on social media claim to show Syrian forces abandoning their posts and bolting away.
There were reports of Syrian military troops surrendering in other cities as well.
A few hours earlier, the rebel group first announced it had advanced directly into the capital city, reaching Sednaya prison, a government facility dubbed the “human slaughterhouse” by the human rights group Amnesty International.
“Our forces have begun entering the capital Damascus,” HTS said in one message. In a follow-up statement, the group said it was “the end of the era of injustice of Sednaya prison.”
The Syrian prime minister, Ghazi al-Jalali, released a video saying the government was ready to “extend a hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions.
Rebel leaders have instructed their fighters not to approach Syrian government sites, an apparent attempt to quell any fears in the city and await a formal handover in the morning.
President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement.
Speaking at a defense conference earlier in the day, before rebels advanced into the capital, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the speed and scale of their rapid advance came, in part, because Assad’s chief backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah — had all been “weakened and distracted,” in recent months.
That has left Assad “basically naked,” Sullivan said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. “His forces are hollowed out.”
Throughout the day Saturday, as the rebel forces were on the move, the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern Syria, leaving more areas of the country, including two provincial capitals, under the control of the rebels, according to the military and an opposition war monitor.
In a statement released earlier Saturday, the Syrian government at first denied Assad had fled the country, issuing a statement calling media reports to the contrary “rumors and false news.”
U.S. intelligence had been preparing for Assad’s front line to collapse under the press of rebel forces, and the U.S. had intelligence that Assad’s family had left the country for Moscow.
Earlier this week, government forces withdrew from Hama, Syria’s fourth largest city, which sits between the capital Damascus to the south and Aleppo — Syria’s second city — to the north.
Aleppo fell to the lightning rebel offensive on Nov. 29. Hama was one of the few major cities that did not fall to anti-government forces following the unsuccessful 2011 revolution against Assad’s rule.
The rebel offensive is being waged by HTS and a collection of Turkish-backed Syrian militias known as the Syrian National Army.
Syria’s prime minister, Ghazi al-Jalali, has told Al Arabiya in an interview that he has had contact with rebel commander and HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani about how to manage the current period.
The Syrian PM has said the country should hold free elections so the Syrian people can choose who they want to lead the country, Reuters has reported.
