‘Bashar al-Assad, family in Moscow’ after ouster

Moscow: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and his family have arrived in Russia and have been granted political asylum by Russian authorities, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing a Kremlin source.

Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying: “Syrian President Assad has arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted him (him and his family) humanitarian asylum.”

Earlier, two Syrian sources said the disappearance of Assad’s plane from tracking could indicate that it had been shot down, or that it had switched off its transponder.

Syrian rebel fighters stormed Damascus unopposed on Sunday, toppling President Bashar al-Assad and ending nearly six decades of his family’s rule after a lightning strike that lasted 13 years. Changed the course of the civil war.

In one of the most consequential turns in the Middle East for generations, the fall of the Assad regime wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence throughout the Arab world. Moscow gave him and his family asylum.

His sudden overthrow at the hands of a Turkish-backed coup would limit Iran’s ability to arm its allies and could damage Russia’s naval base in the Mediterranean. It could pave the way for the eventual return of millions of refugees who have been scattered in camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan for more than a decade.

For Syrians, it brought a sudden and unexpected end to a war that had been simmering for years, in which millions have died, cities have been razed to the ground, an economy hollowed out by global sanctions and with no apparent solution in sight. coming

“How many people were displaced around the world? How many people lived in tents? How many drowned in the oceans?” Top rebel commander Abu Muhammad al-Jolani spoke to a large crowd at the medieval Umayyad mosque in central Damascus, recounting the migrants who drowned trying to reach Europe.

“My brothers, after this great victory, a new history is being written in the entire region,” he said. It will take hard work to build a new Syria that he says will be “a beacon for the Islamic nation.”

Assad’s police state – known as the strictest state in the Middle East since his father seized power in the 1960s, with millions of political prisoners held in gulags – dissolved overnight.

Shocked and excited prisoners burst out of the jails after rebels blew the locks of their cells. The reunited family wept with joy. The newly freed prisoners were filmed running through the streets of Damascus in the morning holding the fingers of both hands to show how many years they had been imprisoned.

“We overthrew the government!” A voice shouted and one of the prisoners screamed and went away with joy.

The eyes were filled with tears.

As the sun set on Damascus for the first time without Assad, the streets leading to the city were mostly empty, save for armed men and The rebels were riding in vehicles covered in brown mud.

Some men can be seen looting a shopping center on the road between the capital and the Lebanese border, loading goods into plastic bags or pickup trucks. Numerous checkpoints on the road to Damascus were empty. Asad posters were torn over his eyes. A burning Syrian military truck lay askew on the road outside the city.

A thick column of black smoke rose from the neighborhood of Maza, where earlier Israeli strikes targeted Syrian state security forces, according to two security sources.

Throughout the city, intermittent gunshots were heard throughout the evening.

Shops and restaurants closed early after a rebel-imposed curfew. Just before it came into effect, people could be seen hurrying home with piles of bread.

Earlier, the rebels said that they had entered the capital without any sign of army deployment. Thousands of people gathered in cars and on foot in a central square in Damascus, waving “freedom” slogans.

People were seen walking inside the Al Rawda Presidential Palace, some carrying furniture inside. A motorcycle was parked on the intricate floor of a golden hall.

‘The future is ours’

Golani, whose group was once al-Qaida’s branch in Syria but has since softened its image to reassure members of minority sects and foreign countries, said there was no room for retreat.

“The future is ours,” he said in a statement read on state TV.

The Syrian rebel coalition said it was working to complete a transition of power to an interim government body with administrative powers.

“The Great Syrian Revolution has moved from the phase of the struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria commensurate with the sacrifices of its people,” he said in a statement.

Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, the prime minister under Assad, called for free elections and said he was in contact with Golani to discuss a transition period.

Enthusiastic supporters of the coup stormed Syrian embassies in several cities around the world, tearing down the red, white and black flags of the Assad era and replacing them with the green, white and black flags flown by their opponents during the war. Took the flag.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Assad’s fall was a direct result of strikes Israel had dealt with Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, once the linchpin of Assad’s security forces but over the past two months. Shelling was done by Israel.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the “barbaric state has fallen” and paid tribute to the Syrian people.

Hard work

When the celebrations are over, Syria’s new leaders will face the daunting task of trying to bring stability to a diverse country that will require billions of dollars in aid to rebuild.

During the civil war, which began as an uprising against Assad in 2011, his forces and their Russian allies bombed cities and reduced them to rubble. The refugee crisis in the Middle East was one of the biggest in modern times, and in 2015, when a million people arrived, it caused a political reckoning in Europe.

Officials told Reuters that President Joe Biden’s administration was monitoring developments but had not adjusted the position of US troops.

The biggest strategic losers were Russia and Iran, which intervened to save Assad in the early years of the war, helping him recapture most of the region and all major cities. The front lines were frozen four years ago under an agreement between Russia and Iran and Turkey.

Even after Assad fled, Israel continued to attack targets associated with his regime and its Iranian-backed allies, including one in Damascus where Israel previously accused Iran of developing missiles. Netanyahu said Assad’s ouster could make it easier for Israel to reach a cease-fire agreement to free hostages in Gaza.

On Sunday, rebels stormed the Iranian embassy, ​​according to Iran’s English-language Press TV. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that the fate of Syria is the sole responsibility of the Syrian people.

Hezbollah withdrew all its remaining forces from Syria on Saturday, two Lebanese security sources said.