In the midst of allegations that President Bashar al-Assad has left the nation, Syrian rebel fighters declared possession of the capital Damascus on Sunday following a week-long lightning onslaught, meeting no opposition from government troops.
Senior Syrian military insiders told Reuters that Assad, who ruled the country with an iron fist for 24 years, boarded a jet to an unidentified location. Officers have reportedly been notified by the army command that the Assad regime has collapsed.
“The tyrant Bashar al-Assad has fled. We declare Damascus free of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” rebels proclaimed, according to news agency. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel faction said in a statement, “We announce today, 12-8-2024, the end of this dark era and the beginning of a new era for Syria.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in Britain, said that Syrian security and military forces had left Damascus International Airport. In the midst of the rebel attack, officials and soldiers left the airport, according to the war monitor, which is based on sources inside Syria.
Residents described gunshots in the capital, and regime loyalists rushed to escape, fearing the fall of the Assad government, according to the news agency and Observatory. According to The Guardian, television footage showed civilians climbing onto tanks and chanting in the streets while fighters in fatigues fired into the air in joy. Mosques declared the overthrow of President Bashar Assad’s government, and a statue of him was overturned. The rebels also declared that they had liberated captives from the infamous Saydnaya military prison, which is located north of Damascus.
“We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice in Saydnaya prison,” they said, as quoted by news agency.
On November 27, armed opposition groups attempting to topple Assad launched a surprise attack on Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, rekindling the 13-year civil war that had ravaged the nation.
With little opposition from government troops, the opposition fighters captured important northern cities like Daraa and Hama in a matter of days. Under the leadership of the Islamist organisation Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has its roots in Al-Qaeda and is regarded by the US and the UN as a terrorist organisation, the rebel factions made by far the biggest progress in recent years during the past week.
The rebels claimed to be encircling the capital, which Assad has controlled since 2000, on Saturday. Homs, a key city situated at the intersection of Damascus and the Syrian dictator’s bastion on the Mediterranean coast, was taken by them later that evening.
The biggest challenge to Assad’s power since the beginning of the war was the swift advances made by the rebels and the absence of backing from his former friends. Only two of the 14 province capitals—Tartus and Latakia—would be within government control if Damascus were overrun by the opposition forces.
The Assad family has controlled Syria for more than 50 years; President Bashar al-Assad assumed office in 2000 after his father, Hafez Assad, passed away. The United Nations claims that in order to crush dissent, Assad’s government has killed over 350,000 opponents, imprisoned and tortured many, and used banned nerve gas on areas controlled by the opposition.
Inspired by the Arab Spring upheavals that swept through most of the Middle East, the nation erupted in anti-Assad protests in 2011. A full-scale civil war broke out as a result of Assad’s brutal crackdown. Large portions of Syria were under the control of Islamic State terrorists and opposition parties by 2015. However, many of these advances were undone and Assad’s hold on power was strengthened by a Russian military operation that included a heavy aerial bombing campaign.
The Islamic State was ultimately pushed to tiny desert outposts by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, who were assisted in part by Russia. The front lines of the fight have remained mostly immobile since 2016, with Assad’s forces continuing to hold sway over important cities.
