Assad flees to Moscow as victorious rebel leader al-Golani enters Damascus
‘This victory, my brothers, is historic for the region,’ says HTS leader at mosque in Syrian capital; Biden says fall of Assad is ‘justice,’ but also ‘a moment of risk’ for region
Ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow on Sunday, Russian state media confirmed, hours after a stunning rebel advance took over the capital of Damascus and ended the Assad family’s five decades of iron rule. Victorious rebel leader Abu Muhammad al-Golani greeted crowds in the freshly liberated capital city.
A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday that Assad was in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds and a deal was made to ensure the safety of Russian military bases.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said earlier that Assad had left Syria and given orders for a peaceful transfer of power.
The privately owned Interfax news agency cited an unnamed Kremlin source as saying Russia favored a political solution under the auspices of the United Nations to the crisis in Syria, where Moscow supported Assad during the long civil war.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said on his Telegram messaging channel: “Breaking news! Bashar al-Assad and his family in Moscow. Russia does not betray friends in difficult situations.”
Al-Golani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Shams, the Islamist rebel group that led the lightning offensive, made his first appearance in Damascus since the fall of the Assad regime.
Al-Golani visited the sprawling Umayyad Mosque and called Assad’s fall “a victory to the Islamic nation.” Calling himself by his given name, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and not his nom de guerre, he told hundreds of people that Assad had made Syria “a farm for Iran’s greed.”
“This victory, my brothers, is historic for the region,” he said, “for the entire Islamic nation.”
“Today, Syria is being purified,” he said, adding that “this victory is born from the people who have languished in prison, and the mujahideen (fighters) broke their chains.”
The HTS-led rebel offensive took just eight days to topple the Syrian government forces, ending Assad’s brutal dictatorial rule and completing the goal of the 2011 rebellion that started 13 years of civil war in Syria.
As insurgents seized one city after another, prisons were often among their first objectives, freeing prisoners from one of the world’s most notorious detention systems.
The worst prisons in and around Damascus itself were finally opened on the uprising’s final night and in the early hours of Sunday.
A video verified by Reuters showed newly freed prisoners running through the Damascus streets, holding up the fingers of both hands to show how many years they had been in prison, asking passersby what had happened, not immediately understanding that Assad had fallen.
“We toppled the regime!” a voice shouted and a prisoner yelled and skipped with delight in the same video. A man watching the prisoners rush through the dawn streets put his hands to head, exclaiming with wonder: “Oh my God, the prisoners!”
A video circulating online purported to show rebels breaking open cell doors and freeing dozens of female prisoners, many of whom appeared shocked. At least one small child was seen among them.
“This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where is he,” said one relative, Bassam Masr. “I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years.”
Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi later appeared on state TV and sought to reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, saying: “Syria is for everyone, no exceptions. Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects.”
“We will not deal with people the way the Assad family did,” he added.
A moment of risk and uncertainty
US President Joe Biden said Sunday that the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but it was “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Middle East.
“For years, the main backers of Assad have been Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia. But over the last week, their support collapsed — from all three of them — because all three of them are far weaker today than they were when I took office,” said Biden.
US President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that Assad had fled his country, which his family had ruled for decades, because close ally Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, “was not interested in protecting him any longer.”
Those comments on Trump’s social media platform came a day after he used another post to decry the possibility of the US intervening militarily in Syria to aid the rebels, declaring, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.” The Biden administration had no intention of intervening, according to Biden’s national security adviser.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday hailed the end of Syria’s “dictatorial regime” and urged the country to rebuild after president Bashar al-Assad’s sudden fall.
“After 14 years of brutal war and the fall of the dictatorial regime, today the people of Syria can seize a historic opportunity to build a stable and peaceful future,” Guterres said in a statement.
“I reiterate my call for calm and avoiding violence at this sensitive time, while protecting the rights of all Syrians, without distinction.”
Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, which provided crucial support to Assad, abandoned him as they reeled from other conflicts.
The end of Assad’s rule was a major blow to Iran and its proxies, already weakened by conflict with Israel. Iran said Syrians should decide their future “without destructive, coercive, foreign intervention.” The Iranian embassy in Damascus was ransacked after apparently having been abandoned.
Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, said it was “effectively impossible” to help the Syrian government after it admitted the insurgents’ military superiority. Speaking on Iranian state media from an undisclosed location, he said Syria’s government decided Saturday night to hand over power peacefully.
Celebrations in the capital
Damascus residents prayed in mosques and celebrated in squares, calling, “God is great.” People chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns. Teenage boys picked up weapons apparently discarded by security forces and fired into the air.
Revelers filled Umayyad Square, where the Defense Ministry is located. Some waved the three-starred Syrian flag that predates the Assad government and was adopted by the revolutionaries. Elsewhere, many parts of the capital were empty and shops were closed.
Soldiers and police left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the Defense Ministry. Videos showed families wandering the presidential palace, some carrying stacks of plates and other household items.
“It’s like a dream. I need someone to wake me up,” said opposition fighter Abu Laith, adding the rebels were welcomed in Damascus with “love.”
At the Justice Ministry, where rebels stood guard, Judge Khitam Haddad said they were protecting documents from the chaos. Outside, some residents sought information about relatives who disappeared under Assad.
The rebels “have felt the pain of the people,” said one woman, giving only her first name, Heba. She worried about possible revenge killings by the rebels, many of whom appeared to be underage.
Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, which was historically pro-government, wrote: “We are facing a new page for Syria. We thank God for not shedding more blood.” It added that media workers should not be blamed for publishing past government statements, saying it “only carried out the instructions.”
A statement from the Alawite sect that has formed the core of Assad’s base called on young Syrians to be “calm, rational and prudent and not to be dragged into what tears apart the unity of our country.”
The rebels mainly come from the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria, which also has sizable Druze, Christian and Kurdish communities. In Qamishli in the northeast, a Kurdish man slapped a statue of the late leader Hafez Assad with his shoe.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and turn its functions over to a transitional government. A video shared on Syrian opposition media showed armed men escorting him from his office and to the Four Seasons hotel on Sunday.
