Rebels seize Damascus; Assad reported to have fled Syria for Moscow
DOHA, Qatar — Rebel fighters all but sealed their control of Syria on Sunday, storming the capital as army troops melted away. President Bashar Assad was reported to have fled to Russia, a close ally, and been given asylum.
The insurgents’ sweep into power concludes an astonishing Turkish-backed offensive that saw them overturn a years-long stalemate to overrun major cities in less than two weeks. The lightning changes raised uncertainty about the future of the civil war-ravaged country and the balance of power in the Middle East.
Early Sunday, the rebel coalition, led by the group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, declared Damascus, the capital, “free of the tyrant Bashar” and hailed the day as “the start of a new era for Syria.” Syrians alternated between expressions of panic and celebration.
Later in the morning, a group of bearded men in hoodies and puffer jackets appearing on state television declared that the Syrian government had been overthrown.
Before dawn, bewildered residents drove near military installations around the capital, noting that no soldiers appeared to be manning the gates and that posts seemed abandoned. Unconfirmed reports emerged of soldiers casting away their uniforms and running off in civilian clothing.
Video showed residents rushing to mosques to announce from minarets that “the dog Bashar has fallen.” Others showed rebel fighters gathering in squares and firing what appeared to be celebratory machine gun salvos into the air. Damascus residents reached via the WhatsApp messaging platform reported hearing sustained gunfire starting in the early morning and continuing for hours.
Scenes of people waving the Syrian revolutionary flag recalled the early days of the Arab Spring uprising, before Assad’s brutal crackdown and the rise of an insurgency plunged the country into a nearly 14-year civil war.
Amid the jubilation, there were also moments of chaos. Activists published videos purporting to show people looting the central bank building in Damascus. Others ransacked the presidential palace after Assad vanished.
Russia said Assad had fled the country after negotiations with insurgents and had left instructions on a peaceful transfer of power. Later Sunday, Russian state news agencies reported Assad had arrived in Moscow with his family and was given asylum. The Tass and RIA agencies cited an unidentified Kremlin source. The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the reports but has contacted the Kremlin for comment.
RIA, citing an anonymous Kremlin source, also said Syrian insurgents told Moscow that they guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria.
Syrian rebels have made their largest gains in years, threatening a fragile status quo in the country.
Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, the prime minister under Assad, issued a video statement on social media saying he would work with any “leadership chosen by the people,” and he urged citizens to safeguard public institutions and not engage in attacks.
“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” he said. A video later showed him being escorted out of his home by gunmen.
The leader of Hayat Tahrir al Sham, Ahmed Sharaa, issued a statement early Sunday ordering rebel fighters entering the capital to preserve public institutions, saying that they would remain under the stewardship of the “former prime minister until they are officially handed over.”
During their advance on Damascus, opposition groups announced taking over a number of prisons and throwing their doors open to release longtime political detainees. That included Sednaya, a lockup north of the capital where rights groups said thousands had been tortured and killed. A video circulating online purported to show rebels breaking open cell doors and freeing female prisoners, with at least one child among them.
Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi appeared on state TV aiming to reassure religious and ethnic minorities. “Syria is for everyone, no exceptions. Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects,” he said. “We will not deal with people the way the Assad family did.”
Rebels took over the city of Hama, upending a long-running stalemate in Syria’s civil war.
The fall of Assad ends a 50-year dynasty begun by his late father, Hafez, notorious for its brutal treatment of adversaries, a fearsome intelligence apparatus and a propaganda arm that claimed almost to the end that Assad remained in the country and the army was holding its positions even as the rebels were entering Damascus.
Al-Watan, a daily known for its pro-government stance, issued a statement on its Telegram messaging app channel essentially apologizing for its coverage and insisting that Syrian media personnel “were not to blame.”
“We only carried out the instructions and published the news they sent us,” the statement said. “It quickly became clear now that it was false.”
The Syrian civil war began in 2011, when anti-government protests — as part of the Arab Spring uprisings — were brutally suppressed, triggering an armed insurgency that overran wide swaths of the country.
Assad remained in power thanks to Russia, Iran and the Iran-backed Lebanese military group Hezbollah, allies that dispatched fighters and arms to bolster the Syrian president’s flagging troops. By 2019, his survival was seen as a fait accompli, but he presided over a fractured, hollowed-out state, with no less than three rival administrations competing against him: one in the northwest under Hayat Tahrir al Sham, a Turkish-controlled canton near the border with Turkey in the north, and a U.S.-backed rump state controlled by the Kurdish militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.
But on Nov. 27, a coalition of rebels, backed with weapons and support from Turkey, began their advance. In recent days they swiftly overran Aleppo, a major city and an economic powerhouse in Syria.
Though Russia, Iran and Hezbollah indicated they would stand by Assad, the offensive came at a time when all three were distracted by other conflicts — Moscow in its war on Ukraine and the latter two against Israel. The Syrian army, meanwhile, insisted it was redeploying outside the city and would fight to regain control of lost territory.
But it was not to be: Opposition forces quickly moved south to the city of Hama, and by Saturday evening had entered Homs, a strategic central city, without facing any resistance from the Syrian army. On Sunday morning, the insurgents said they were entering Dair Alzour, a major city in the country’s east. Hours later, they were in Damascus.
Assad’s ouster raises urgent questions for enemies and allies alike, especially Russia, which maintains an air base and its only warm-water port on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
Russia’s embassy in Egypt issued a statement condemning the rebels’ advance, saying Damascus “has been captured by terrorists who are backed by external forces led by the United States.”
“They stubbornly want to destroy the Syrian state and destabilize the entire Middle East, bringing more suffering to the Arabs,” the statement said.
Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy chairman of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said in a message on his Telegram channel that Russia’s priority was to evacuate its citizens, diplomats and military personnel. He added that the civil war “will not end today,” but that Russia is unlikely to continue to provide support to the government. “The Syrians will have to cope with it themselves,” he wrote.
Iranian officials had been in touch with the opposition in recent days to arrange safe passage for their troops in Syria, said Mohammed Ghanem, a Syrian senior policy advisor with the think tank Citizens for a Secure and Safe America who also advises the opposition leadership. He added that the rebels had agreed on the Iranian exit.
Potentially the biggest beneficiary of Assad’s departure is Turkey, a longtime opposition backer that hosts about 3.2 million Syrian refugees and which controls swaths of its southern neighbor’s borderlands. In recent months, Turkish officials sought a detente with Assad, who refused to engage in discussions until Turkey withdrew from Syrian territory. Instead, Turkey backed the rebel coalition’s offensive, with weapons and intelligence support.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, at a news conference at the Doha Forum in Qatar, said that “the Syrian people can shape the future of their own country.”
“Today there is hope,” he said.
Fidan dismissed any chance of working with the Syrian Democratic Forces, which Turkey considers a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party that has opposed the Turkish government in Ankara for years. Activists reported clashes were already underway between the Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish-backed factions in the rebel coalition in SDF-controlled areas.
Many fear Islamic State militants, still active in some remote areas, will take advantage of the chaos and ensuing security vacuum, echoing what the extremist group did in 2014, when it declared a caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria.
President Biden said Sunday that he intended for U.S. troops in Syria to remain. Numbering fewer than a thousand, they include forces working with Kurdish allies in the northeast to prevent any Islamic State group resurgence. Biden also said U.S. forces on Sunday hit Islamic State camps in Syria with “precision airstrikes.” The operation hit more than 75 targets, according to U.S. Central Command.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said his government’s troops had seized a demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, saying it was protecting Israeli residents after Syrian troops abandoned their posts. Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed it; except for the United States, the international community views it as occupied Syrian territory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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