Syrian Authorities Falls, Ending Half A Century Of Iron Rule By The Assad Household

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The Syrian authorities collapsed early Sunday, falling to a lightning insurgent offensive that seized management of the capital of Damascus and despatched crowds into the streets to have a good time the finish of the Assad household’s 50 years of iron rule.

Syrian state tv aired a video assertion by a gaggle of males saying that President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been let loose.

The person who learn the assertion mentioned the opposition group, referred to as the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus, referred to as on all insurgent fighters and residents to protect the establishments of “the free Syrian state.”

The assertion emerged hours after the top of a Syrian opposition struggle monitor mentioned Assad had left the nation for an undisclosed location, fleeing forward of insurgents who mentioned that they had entered Damascus following a remarkably swift advance throughout the nation.

Lots of the capital’s residents have been in disbelief on the velocity at which Assad misplaced his maintain on the nation after practically 14 years of civil struggle that killed lots of of 1000’s of individuals, displaced half the nation’s prewar inhabitants of 23 million and drew in a number of international powers.

As daylight broke over Damascus, crowds gathered to wish within the metropolis’s mosques and to have a good time within the squares, chanting “God is great.” Folks additionally chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked automotive horns. Teen boys picked up weapons that had apparently been discarded by safety forces and fired them within the air.

Revelers crammed Umayyad Sq. within the metropolis middle, the place the Protection Ministry is situated. Males fired celebratory gunshots into the air and a few waved the three-starred Syrian flag that predates the Assad authorities and was adopted by the revolutionaries. A couple of kilometers (miles) away, Syrians stormed the presidential palace, tearing up portraits of the toppled president.

Troopers and cops left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the Protection Ministry. Movies from Damascus confirmed households wandering into the presidential palace, with some rising carrying stacks of plates and different home goods.

“I did not sleep last night, and I refused to sleep until I heard the news of his fall,” mentioned Mohammed Amer Al-Oulabi, 44, who works within the electrical energy sector. “From Idlib to Damascus, it only took them (the opposition forces) a few days, thank God. May God bless them, the heroic lions who made us proud.”

Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, which was traditionally pro-government, wrote: “We are facing a new page for Syria. We thank God for not shedding more blood. We believe and trust that Syria will be for all Syrians.”

The newspaper added that media staff shouldn’t be blamed for publishing authorities statements prior to now.

“We only carried out the instructions and published the news they sent us,” it mentioned. “It quickly became clear now that it was false.”

An announcement from the Alawite sect — to which Assad belongs and which has shaped the core of his base — referred to as on younger Syrians to be “calm, rational and prudent and not to be dragged into what tears apart the unity of our country.”

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali mentioned in a video assertion that the federal government was able to “extend its hand” to the opposition and switch its features over to a transitional authorities.

He later informed Saudi tv community Al Arabiya that he doesn’t know the place Assad and the protection minister are. He mentioned he misplaced communication with Assad late Saturday.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights informed The Related Press that Assad took a flight Sunday from Damascus.

A senior diplomat from the United Arab Emirates, which had sought to rehabilitate Assad’s picture and has welcomed high-profile exiles lately, declined to touch upon his whereabouts when requested by reporters at a convention in Bahrain.

Anwar Gargash mentioned Assad’s vacation spot at this level is a “footnote in history,” evaluating it to the lengthy exile of German Kaiser Wilhelm II after World Conflict I.

Assad has been accused of struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity through the struggle, together with a 2013 chemical weapons assault on the outskirts of the capital.

There was no quick remark from Iran, which had been Assad’s staunchest supporter. The Iranian Embassy in Damascus was ransacked after apparently having been deserted. AP footage confirmed damaged home windows and paperwork scattered within the entryway.

Opposition forces had not reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a yearslong siege.

The night time earlier than, opposition forces took the central metropolis of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as authorities forces deserted it. Town stands at an necessary intersection between Damascus, the capital, and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus — the Syrian chief’s base of help and residential to a Russian strategic naval base.

The rebels had already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama, in addition to giant elements of the south, in a fast-moving offensive that started Nov. 27.

The advances prior to now week have been by far the biggest lately by opposition factions, led by a gaggle that has its origins in al-Qaida and is taken into account a terrorist group by the US and the United Nations. Of their push to overthrow Assad’s authorities, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian military.

HTS arrange a “salvation government” in 2017 to manage a big area in northwestern Syria below its management. Lately, HTS chief Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group’s picture, slicing ties with al-Qaida, ditching hard-line officers and vowing to embrace pluralism and non secular tolerance.

“Golani has made history and sparked hope among millions of Syrians,” mentioned Dareen Khalifa, a senior adviser with the Worldwide Disaster Group and an professional on Syrian teams. “But he and the rebels now face a formidable challenge ahead. One can only hope they rise to the occasion.”

The U.N.’s particular envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, referred to as Saturday for pressing talks in Geneva to make sure an “orderly political transition.” Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose nation is Assad’s chief worldwide backer, mentioned he feels “sorry for the Syrian people.”

The Gulf nation of Qatar, a key regional mediator, hosted an emergency assembly of international ministers and high officers from eight international locations with pursuits in Syria late Saturday. The individuals included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Turkey.

Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari, Qatar’s international ministry spokesman and an adviser to the prime minister, informed reporters that they agreed on the necessity “to engage all parties on the ground,” together with the HTS, and that the primary concern is “stability and safe transition.”

The Israeli army mentioned Sunday it has deployed forces in a demilitarized buffer zone alongside its northern frontier with Syria following the insurgent offensive there.

The army, which mentioned it additionally despatched troops to “other places necessary for its defense,” mentioned the deployment was meant to offer safety for residents of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel captured the territory within the 1967 Mideast struggle and the worldwide group, aside from the US, views it as occupied.

Related Press writers Bassem Mroue, Sarah El Deeb and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Samar Kassaballi, Omar Sanadiki and Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus, Syria, Jon Gambrell in Manama, Bahrain, Josef Federman in Doha, Qatar, and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.