Donald Trump confirmed from Paris that Bashar al-Assad would be on the run after losing the support of his Russian ally, the rebels announce the “end of a dark era”.
Rebels led by radical Islamists announced on Syrian public television the fall of President Bashar al-Assad and the “liberation” of the capital Damascus, after a dazzling offensive that ended more than five decades of family rule Assad.
Several dozen people gathered in the center of Damascus to celebrate the fall of the regime. They toppled and trampled a statue of President Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000, according to AFPTV footage. On the Umayyad Square, the sound of gunshots as a sign of joy mixes with the cries of Allahou Akbar Allahou Akbar” (“God is the greatest”). “We have been waiting for this day for a long time,” he said. declared Amer Batha, reached by telephone by AFP from the Place des Omayyades “I can't believe that I'm living this moment,” said this Syrian who burst into tears: “It's news. story that begins for Syria.”
Bashar al-Assad's flight confirmed
On public television, the rebels announced the fall of the “tyrant” Bashar al-Assad and the “liberation” of Damascus. In their statement, they said they had released all the “unjustly detained” prisoners and called for safeguarding the assets of the “free” Syrian state. They had earlier announced on the Telegram application “the flight” of Bashar al-Assad and proclaimed “the city of Damascus free”.
“Assad left Syria via Damascus international airport before members of the armed and security forces left” the site, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) told AFP. ), Rami Abdel Rahmane. The future American president, Donald Trump, confirmed from Paris the flight of Bashar al-Assad after the loss of support from Russia.
AFP was not immediately able to confirm from an official source the whereabouts of the president who ruled Syria with an iron fist for twenty-four years, bloodily repressing pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011 which turned into a civil war, one of the most violent of the 21st century. “The extraordinary events” underway in Syria are being followed “attentively” by American President Joe Biden, according to the White House.
End of a “dark era”
Since the start of their offensive on November 27 in northwestern Syria, the rebels have quickly conquered several key cities as government forces collapsed. They launched an appeal “to return to free Syria” to Syrians displaced abroad by the conflict which has caused half a million deaths since 2011, and has divided the country into zones of influence, with belligerents supported by different foreign powers.
In a video posted on his Facebook account, Syrian Prime Minister Mohamed alJalali said he was ready to cooperate with any new “leadership” chosen by the people, specifying that he would be in his offices at government headquarters on Sunday morning to any “transfer” of power procedure. “After 50 years of oppression under the ruling Baath (party), and 13 years of crimes, tyranny and displacement, (since the start of the uprising in 2011, editor's note) we announce today the end of this era dark and the beginning of a new era for Syria,” said the rebels who inflicted a stinging setback on the pro-government forces.
The leader of the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, at the head of a coalition of rebels backed by Turkey, called on his fighters not to approach public institutions, adding that these remained under the control of the Prime Minister until the “official handover”.
Lebanese Hezbollah, a key supporter of Bashar al-Assad's power, has simultaneously withdrawn its forces from the outskirts of Damascus and the Homs region (western Syria), according to a source close to the movement. AFP.
Spectacular progress
The coalition of rebel groups led by HTS, a group from the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, made a particularly spectacular advance in around ten days, capturing the major cities of Aleppo and Hama before announcing in the night of Saturday to Sunday having taken control of Homs, the third city of the country, and having entered the capital Damascus.
It notably took advantage of the withdrawal of government forces from several regions in the face of the offensive it launched to everyone's surprise on November 27 from the province of Idleb, its stronghold in north-west Syria, despite air raids carried out with the regime's ally, Russia, and ground operations against insurgent sectors. South of the capital, near the Jordanian border, government troops also lost control of the city of Daraa, cradle of the 2011 uprising, to local forces, according to the OSDH.
On another front, in the province of Deir Ezzor (east), government forces withdrew from territories under their control and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) deployed there. With the military support of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, the power led by Mr. Assad recaptured a large part of the country in 2015 and in 2016 the entirety of Aleppo, the eastern part of which was taken into custody. 2012 by the rebels. A ceasefire established in 2020, sponsored by Ankara and Moscow, had brought an uneasy calm to the northwest.
