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Earlier in the day, Russia announced that Assad had resigned from the post of the President of Syria and left the country to an unknown destination.
Syria’s ouster President Bashar al-Assad (File)
Ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family have arrived in Russia’s Moscow after the rebels took over the country’s capital city Damascus on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported citing a Kremlin source.
“Assad and members of his family have arrived in Moscow,” the source told the Russian news agencies. Assad family has been granted asylum by the Russian authorities on “humanitarian grounds”, the source added.
Earlier in the day, Russia announced that Assad had resigned from the post of the President of Syria and left the country to an unknown destination.
“As a result of negotiations between B Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict in the SAR, he decided to leave the presidential post and left the country, giving instructions to transfer power peacefully,” the Russian foreign ministry had said in a statement.
Speculations swirled over the fate of Assad after the rebels advanced the capital city. It was assumed that he might seek refuge in Russia or Iran.
As reported earlier, the ousted leader was visiting Moscow just before the rebel offensive and Iranian news agencies published a photograph of him that showed him meeting a top Iranian official in Damascus.
Assad has not spoken in public since the rebels advance a week ago, when insurgents seized northern Aleppo in a surprise attack before marching into a succession of cities as frontlines crumbled.
Meanwhile, as per the sources, Moscow had received guarantees from Syrian insurgents of the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria.
Fled to Unknown Destination
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Assad left on a private plane that took off from Damascus international airport at 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Saturday night, without specifying where he headed.
There were also the reports of Assad being killed in a plane crash after it abruptly reversed course and flew in the opposite direction for several minutes before vanishing from radar near the city of Homs, Reuters reported.
What Fueled Speculations Of Assad’s Death?
Reuters cited data from the Flightradar website and reported that a Syrian plane took off from the Damascus airport around the same time when the capital city was stormed by the anti-regime forces.
The flight initially moved towards Syria’s coastal region which is believed to be his stronghold. However, the plane made a U-turn abruptly and flew in the opposite direction for some time before it disappeared from the map. The abrupt U-turn and disappearance from the radar fueled speculations Assad might have been killed mid-air.
Syrians Celebrate Assad’s Ouster
Celebrations erupted around Syria and crowds ransacked Assad’s palace earlier today the HTS, formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front and affiliated with the terror group Al-Qaeda, along with allied factions, ended five decades of Baath party rule.
Who Is Bashar al-Assad?
Bashar Al-Assad came to power succeeding his father Hafez Al-Assad in 2000 and ruled Syria for over two decades till an armed rebellion overthrew his regime.
Bashar Al-Assad’s father’s rule over Syria with an iron grip for nearly three decades was seen as repressive by many.
Assad’s legacy will be indelibly marked by his handling of the 2011 protests, which spiralled into a devastating civil war. The conflict claimed over half a million lives, forced six million people to become refugees, and left countless others internally displaced.
Over the past 11 days, a rebel alliance charged through Syria in the boldest challenge to the Assad rule in years – following decades of brutal reign by the Assad dynasty marked by fighting, bloodshed and an oppressive political crackdown.