Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled the nation after a surprising offensive by rebels who seized the capital metropolis of Damascus and toppled the dynasty that had dominated for 50 years.
Amid scenes of jubilation on Sunday, the rebels proclaimed “town of Damascus is free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad” and “Assad has fled” after varied factions encircled the capital.
Russia, a longtime backer of the Assad regime, mentioned the Syrian president had resigned, left the nation and ordered a peaceable transition of energy. Russian state newswire Tass later mentioned he and his household had arrived in Moscow the place they’d been provided asylum.
“The long run is ours,” mentioned Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, chief of the triumphant Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Islamist group, in a press release learn out on Syrian state tv.
HTS, as soon as an affiliate of al-Qaeda, led disparate insurgent factions in a lightning 12-day offensive that introduced the Assad dynasty to an ignominious finish and has shaken the area.
Final week the group seized Aleppo, Syria’s second metropolis, inside 48 hours earlier than rapidly marching south in direction of the capital.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed a “historic day within the annals of the Center East” however despatched tanks and infantry right into a demilitarised buffer zone on the Syrian facet of the Golan Heights.
Netanyahu mentioned a 1974 ceasefire settlement had “collapsed” after Syrian military items deserted their positions and Israeli forces wanted “to make sure no hostile pressure embeds itself proper subsequent to the border of Israel”.
US president-elect Donald Trump wrote in a social media put up: “Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not concerned with defending [Assad] any longer.”
He added: “Russia and Iran are in a weakened state proper now, one due to Ukraine and a nasty economic system, the opposite due to Israel and its combating success.”
US President Joe Biden mentioned Washington would “interact with all Syrian teams”, reflecting the way it goals to affect what he described as “the most effective alternative in generations for Syrians to forge their very own future”.
Biden mentioned the US would search to make sure Isis couldn’t reap the benefits of the state of affairs, including the American army had launched dozens of air strikes on Sunday focusing on camps and operatives of the Jihadist group in Syria.
In Damascus, insurgent factions had been already trying to implement legislation and order, imposing a curfew, warning of authorized penalties for theft and errant gunfire, taking up ministries and putting in law enforcement officials amid widespread looting.
The Monetary Instances was referred to a brand new Ministry of Communications constructing, the place insurgent officers had arrange store, when inquiring about media entry to town after curfew.
Signalling his efforts to safe an orderly transition, Jolani declared that Syrian state establishments would stay below the supervision of the Assad-appointed prime minister till a handover.
Close to town’s Umayyad sq., the streets had been suffering from hundreds of bullet casings — remnants of celebratory gunfire. The sound of artillery shelling and sporadic gunfire may nonetheless be heard in central Damascus on Sunday night.
“I can’t consider it. Everyone seems to be on the street, everyone seems to be shouting,” mentioned Abdallah, a Damascus resident. “It’s one thing historic. Nobody has suffered as a lot because the Syrian folks.”
Movies despatched to the Monetary Instances by a Damascus resident confirmed folks contained in the presidential palace, rummaging by means of rooms and smashing footage of the Assad household.
A person wearing civilian clothes appeared on Syrian state TV on Sunday morning declaring that the rebels had “liberated” Damascus and launched detainees from “regime prisons”.
However whereas the information sparked celebrations throughout Syria, it additionally ushers in a interval of big uncertainty for a nation shattered and fragmented after 13 years of civil conflict, and for the broader area.
The nation borders Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, with HTS working with Turkish-backed rebels working below the umbrella of the Syrian Nationwide Military.
Nonetheless, Syria is residence to myriad factions and the diploma of co-ordination between all of them is unclear.
Turkey’s international minister Hakan Fidan hailed the tip of the Assad regime, but in addition warned that Ankara was involved “Isis and different terrorist organisations . . . will reap the benefits of this course of”.
An Arab diplomat mentioned regional powers, together with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Russia and Qatar had agreed to co-ordinate efforts to stabilise the state of affairs.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali mentioned he was able to work with any management chosen by the folks and known as for unity.
“We’re able to co-operate and all of the properties of the folks and the establishments of the Syrian state should be preserved,” he added.
A number of explosions had been heard in Damascus on Sunday afternoon. At the very least a few of the strikes — whose origins had been unknown — hit the Syrian safety complicated.
Assad, a London-trained eye physician, had dominated Syria since 2000, when he succeeded his late father Hafez al-Assad.
Civil conflict broke out in 2011 after his forces brutally suppressed a well-liked rebellion.
He managed to cling to energy with the backing of Iran and Russia, which supplied important air energy, and in recent times his regime had regained management over many of the nation.
Nonetheless, he presided over a hollowed-out, bankrupt state — and even many amongst his personal Alawite neighborhood appeared to have given up on the regime after years of battle and financial hardship.
When HTS mounted its offensive on November 27, regime forces appeared to soften away, whereas Russia, Iran and Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant group, had been all distracted by their very own conflicts.
The rebels’ success is a humiliating blow to Iran, whose help for Assad had given it a “land bridge” throughout Syria to Lebanon and its proxy Hizbollah.
Iran’s international ministry on Sunday urged respect for Syria’s “territorial integrity” and known as for “a direct finish to army conflicts” within the Arab state.
Assad’s exit can be a setback for Russia, which gained entry to air and naval bases on the Mediterranean after intervening within the conflict in 2015.
Russia mentioned on Sunday its army bases in Syria had been “on excessive alert”. Moscow spoke of “no severe risk to their safety”, however Russian army bloggers mentioned it was getting ready to evacuate its Khmeimim air base and naval web site in Tartus.
John Foreman, a former UK defence attaché in Moscow, mentioned the bases’ loss could be “a serious strategic reversal” for Russia and with out them it could be “tougher for the Russian navy to take care of an everlasting maritime presence within the Mediterranean or Pink Sea to problem Nato”.
Extra reporting by Max Seddon in Berlin, John Paul Rathbone in London, Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv, Felicia Schwartz in Washington
Cartography by Steven Bernard
