2024-12-08 07:07:00
EDIT from December 8th at 7.45am: On public television, the rebels announced the fall of the “tyrant” Bashar al-Assad this Sunday morning. They also confirmed that the president had fled.
Confusion reigns in Syria where power seems to have fallen.According to an NGO, President Bashar al-Assad fled the country this Sunday, facing pressure from rebels who are waging an impressive offensive and have announced they have entered the capital damascus. On Sunday morning the rebels confirmed the fall of the “tyrant” Bashar al-Assad, his escape and also the capture of Damascus.
Heavy gunfire heard in Damascus
“Assad left Syria via Damascus International Airport before members of the military and security forces left the site,” OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahmane said. AFP was unable to promptly confirm from an official source the whereabouts of the president who has ruled Syria for twenty-four years.
“our forces have begun to enter Damascus,” the radical Islamic group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, at the head of a coalition of rebels supported by Turkey, had declared shortly before on Telegram. Residents of the capital reported hearing loud gunshots.
According to sources from the Syrian Observatory for human Rights (OSDH), the order was given to officers and soldiers of government forces to withdraw from Damascus international airport. before this withdrawal, President Bashar al-Assad could have left syria via Damascus airport, according to the London-based NGO which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.
The rebels immediately announced that they had captured Damascus’ sednaya prison, a symbol of the worst abuses by President Assad’s forces, and had freed detainees from that facility.
Hezbollah withdraws its forces
According to the OSDH, Lebanese Hezbollah, a major supporter of Bashar al-Assad’s power, simultaneously withdrew its forces from the outskirts of Damascus and the homs region (western Syria).
Torn by a war that has caused half a million deaths as 2011 and divided it into zones of influence,wiht belligerents supported by various foreign powers,Syria has not seen such intense fighting for thirteen years.
The coalition of rebel groups led by HTS, a group from the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, made a notably spectacular advance in about ten days, capturing the main cities of Aleppo and Hama before announcing that it had taken control of Homs, the third largest city in the country and entered Damascus. In addition to Hezbollah, Bashar al-Assad is supported by Iran and Russia.