- Assad got smackdowed of power!
Syrian rebels topple President Assad, Russia says he left the country
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Timour Azhari
- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Russian foreign minister says Assad left the country
- Israeli strikes hit Damascus and south, regional security sources say
AMMAN/BEIRUT/CAIRO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Syrian rebels declared
President Bashar al-Assad's ouster after seizing control of Damascus on Sunday, forcing him to flee and ending his family's decades of rule after more than 13 years of civil war in a seismic moment for the Middle East.
The Islamist rebels also dealt a major blow to the influence of Russia and Iran in Syria in the heart of the region, allies who propped up Assad during critical periods in the conflict.
The rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments. Thousands of people in cars and on foot congregated at a main square waving and chanting "Freedom" from a half century of Assad family rule, witnesses said.
People were seen walking inside the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, with some leaving carrying furniture from inside. The rebels said prisoners had been freed from a large jail on the outskirts of Damascus where the Syrian government detained thousands.
"We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains," the rebels said.
Iran's embassy was also stormed by Syrian rebels, Iran's English-language Press TV reported.
Hezbollah, which provided crucial support to Assad for years, withdrew all of its forces from Syria on Saturday as rebel factions approached the capital Damascus, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters on Sunday.
One of the sources said that the supervising forces that Hezbollah had deployed to Syria overnight between Thursday and Friday had been sent to oversee the pullback.
Syria's army command notified officers on Sunday that Assad's rule had ended, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters.
But the military later said it was continuing operations against "terrorist groups" in the key cities of Hama and Homs and in the Deraa countryside.
Assad, who has not spoken in public since the sudden rebel advance a week ago, flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination earlier on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.
His whereabouts now - and those of his wife Asma and their two children - remain unknown. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Assad had left office and departed the country after giving orders there be a peaceful handover of power.
The Syrian rebel coalition said it is continuing work to complete the transfer of power in Syria to a transitional governing body with full executive powers.
"The great Syrian revolution has moved from the stage of struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria together that befits the sacrifices of its people," it added in a statement.
As Syrians expressed joy, Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali called for free elections.
But that would require a smooth transition in a country with complex competing interests, from Islamists to groups with links to the United States, Russia and Turkey.
Jalali also said he had been in contact with rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani to discuss managing the transitional period, marking a notable development in efforts to shape Syria's political future.
The collapse of Assad's rule followed a shift in the balance of power in the Middle East after many leaders of Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, a lynchpin of Assad's battlefield force, were killed by Israel over the past two months.
The road ahead is highly complex with a mosaic of groups pursuing conflicting agendas.
Turkey-backed Syrian forces have taken control of some 80% of northern Syria's Manbij area and are close to victory against Kurdish forces there, a Turkish security source said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks with Geir Pedersen, the U.N. envoy for Syria, in Doha on Saturday when they discussed potential measures to stabilise the situation in Syria, the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.
Syrians will have to cope with a full-scale civil war alone, Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy chairman of Russia's upper house of parliament said, while suggesting that Moscow was ready to support the Syrian people in certain circumstances.
Russia, a staunch Assad ally, intervened decisively in 2015 to help Assad during Syria's civil war. But with its military resources mostly tied down in Ukraine, Moscow's ability to influence the situation on the ground was far more limited this time round - despite maintaining two military facilities in Syria.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...captured-homs-set-sights-damascus-2024-12-07/