Syrian government falls in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian authorities fell early Sunday in a shocking finish to the 50-year rule of the Assad household after a sudden insurgent offensive sprinted throughout government-held territory and entered the capital in 10 days.

Syrian state tv aired a video assertion by a gaggle of males saying that President Bashar Assad has been overthrown and all detainees in jails have been let out.

The person who learn the assertion mentioned the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus, an opposition group, known as on all opposition fighters and residents to protect state establishments of “the free Syrian state.”

The assertion emerged hours after the top of a Syrian opposition conflict monitor mentioned Assad had left the nation for an undisclosed location, fleeing forward of insurgents who mentioned that they had entered Damascus following the remarkably swift advance throughout the nation.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali mentioned the federal government was able to “prolong its hand” to the opposition and switch its features over to a transitional authorities.

“I’m in my home and I’ve not left, and that is due to my belonging to this nation,” Jalili mentioned in a video assertion. He mentioned he would go to his workplace to proceed work within the morning and known as on Syrian residents to not deface public property.

He didn’t deal with studies that Assad had fled.

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

State tv in Iran, Assad’s fundamental backer within the years of conflict in Syria, reported that Assad had left the capital. It cited Qatar’s Al Jazeera information community for the data and didn’t elaborate.

There was no rapid assertion from the Syrian authorities.

As daylight broke over Damascus, crowds gathered to hope within the metropolis’s mosques and to have a good time within the squares, chanting “God is nice.” Individuals additionally chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked automotive horns. In some areas, celebratory gunshots rang out.

Troopers and cops left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the headquarters of the Ministry of Protection.

“My emotions are indescribable,” mentioned Omar Daher, a 29-year-old lawyer. “After the worry that he (Assad) and his father made us dwell in for a few years, and the panic and state of terror that I used to be residing in, I can’t consider it.”

Daher mentioned his father was killed by safety forces and his brother was in detention, his destiny unknown. Assad “is a felony, a tyrant and a canine,” he mentioned.”

“Rattling his soul and the soul of all the Assad household,” mentioned Ghazal al-Sharif, one other reveler in central Damascus. “It’s the prayer of each oppressed particular person and God answered it right now. We thought we’d by no means see it, however thank God, we noticed it.”

The police headquarters within the capital gave the impression to be deserted, its door left ajar with no officers outdoors. An Related Press journalist shot footage of an deserted military checkpoint the place uniforms have been discarded on the bottom below a poster of Assad’s face. Footage broadcast on opposition-linked media confirmed a tank in one of many capital’s central squares.

It was the primary time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a yearslong siege.

The professional-government Sham FM radio reported that the Damascus airport had been evacuated and all flights halted.

The insurgents additionally introduced that they had entered the infamous Saydnaya navy jail north of the capital and “liberated” their prisoners there.

The evening earlier than, opposition forces took the central metropolis of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as authorities forces deserted it. The town stands at an necessary intersection between Damascus, the capital, and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus — the Syrian chief’s base of help and residential to a Russian strategic naval base.

The rebels had already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama, in addition to massive elements of the south, in a lightning offensive that started Nov. 27. Analysts mentioned insurgent management of Homs can be a game-changer.

The rebels’ strikes into Damascus got here after the Syrian military withdrew from a lot of southern a part of the nation, leaving extra areas, together with a number of provincial capitals, below the management of opposition fighters.

The advances up to now week have been by far the biggest in recent times by opposition factions, led by a gaggle that has its origins in al-Qaida and is taken into account a terrorist group by the U.S. and the United Nations. Of their push to overthrow Assad’s authorities, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian military.

The U.N.’s particular envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, known as Saturday for pressing talks in Geneva to make sure an “orderly political transition.” Talking to reporters on the annual Doha Discussion board in Qatar, he mentioned the scenario in Syria was altering by the minute. Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose nation is Assad’s chief worldwide backer, mentioned he feels “sorry for the Syrian folks.”

In Damascus, folks rushed to replenish on provides. 1000’s went to Syria’s border with Lebanon, attempting to go away the nation. Lebanese border officers closed the principle Masnaa border crossing late Saturday, leaving many caught ready.

Many outlets within the capital have been shuttered, a resident advised The Related Press, and people nonetheless open ran out of staples akin to sugar. Some have been promoting gadgets at 3 times the conventional value.

The U.N. mentioned it was transferring noncritical workers outdoors the nation as a precaution.

Assad’s standing

Syria’s state media denied social media rumors that Assad left the nation, saying he was performing his duties in Damascus.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali mentioned Sunday he doesn’t know the place Assad or the protection minister are. He advised Saudi tv community Al-Arabiyya early Sunday that they misplaced communication Saturday evening.

He has had little, if any, assist from his allies. Russia is busy with its conflict in Ukraine. Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which at one level despatched 1000’s of fighters to shore up Assad’s forces, has been weakened by a yearlong battle with Israel. Iran has seen its proxies throughout the area degraded by common Israeli airstrikes.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that the US ought to keep away from partaking militarily in Syria. Individually, President Joe Biden’s nationwide safety adviser mentioned the Biden administration had no intention of intervening there.

Pedersen mentioned a date for talks in Geneva on the implementation of a U.N. decision, adopted in 2015 and calling for a Syrian-led political course of, can be introduced later. The decision requires the institution of a transitional governing physique, adopted by the drafting of a brand new structure and ending with U.N.-supervised elections.

Later Saturday, international ministers and senior diplomats from eight key international locations, together with Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran, together with Pederson, gathered on the sidelines of the Doha Summit to debate the scenario in Syria.

In an announcement, the contributors affirmed their help for a political resolution to the Syrian disaster “that might result in the top of navy exercise and defend civilians.”

The insurgents’ march

A commander with the insurgents, Hassan Abdul-Ghani, posted on the Telegram messaging app that opposition forces had begun the “closing stage” of their offensive by encircling Damascus.

HTS controls a lot of northwest Syria and in 2017 arrange a “salvation authorities” to run day-to-day affairs within the area. Lately, HTS chief Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group’s picture, chopping ties with al-Qaida, ditching hard-line officers and vowing to embrace pluralism and non secular tolerance.

The shock offensive started Nov. 27, throughout which gunmen captured the northern metropolis of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central metropolis of Hama, the nation’s fourth-largest metropolis.

The Syrian authorities has referred to opposition gunmen as terrorists since battle broke out in March 2011.

Qatar’s prime diplomat, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, criticized Assad for failing to benefit from the lull in combating in recent times to handle the nation’s underlying issues. “Assad didn’t seize this chance to start out partaking and restoring his relationship together with his folks,” he mentioned.

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Karam reported from London. Related Press writers Abdulrahman Shaheen and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria; Abby Sewell in Beirut; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; Josef Federman and Victoria Eastwood in Doha, Qatar; and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.

Bassem Mroue And Zeina Karam, The Related Press