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Syrian rebels have seized Damascus, ending Bashar al-Assad’s 50-year family rule and prompting his asylum in Russia. The development marks a historic turning point in the Middle East.
Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad (Photos: AP)
Syria’s former President Bashar al-Assad and his family have been granted asylum in the Russian capital Moscow on humanitarian grounds, hours after a stunning rebel advance seized control of Damascus and ended his family’s 50 years of iron rule. Later, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that a deal to ensure the safety of Russian military bases has also been finalised.
On Sunday, Syrian rebels seized capital city Damascus, and poured onto the streets, echoing with celebratory gunfire and waving the revolutionary flag. The development sent President Assad fleeing to Russia after a 13-year civil war and is being seen as one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations.
Meanwhile, Russia requested an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Syria, according to Dmitry Polyansky, its deputy ambassador to the UN, in a post on Telegram.
Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, often pitted against each other by Assad’s state and years of war. Many of them feared the possibility that Sunni Islamist extremists will take over. The country is also fragmented among disparate armed factions, and foreign powers from Russia and Iran to the United States, Turkey and Israel all have their hands in the mix.
WHO ARE THE SYRIAN REBELS?
According to the Associated Press, the rebels mainly come from the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria, which also has sizable Druze, Christian and Kurdish communities. They face the daunting task of healing bitter divisions in a country ravaged by war and split among armed factions.
Turkey-backed opposition fighters are battling US-allied Kurdish forces in the north, and the Islamic State group is still active in remote areas.
Syrian state television broadcast a rebel statement saying Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been released. They urged people to preserve the institutions of “the free Syrian state” and announced a curfew in Damascus from 4 pm to 5 am.
WHO IS ABU MOHAMMED AL-GOLANI?
The leader of Syria’s biggest rebel faction, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, is poised to chart the country’s future. The former al-Qaida commander cut ties with the group years ago and says he embraces pluralism and religious tolerance. His Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the United Nations.
As Golani entered Damascus behind his victorious fighters Sunday, he even dropped his nom de guerre and referred himself by his real name, Ahmad al-Sharaa.
The extent of that transformation from jihadi extremist to would-be state builder is now put to the test.
SHARAA’s FIRST APPEARANCE
Hours after Damascus’ capture, the 42-year-old al-Sharaa made his first appearance in the city’s landmark Umayyad Mosque, declaring Assad’s fall “a victory for the Islamic nation”.
A senior rebel commander, Anas Salkhadi, appeared on state TV to declare, “Our message to all the sects of Syria, is that we tell them that Syria is for everyone.”
DAMASCUS CELEBRATES
Residents in Damascus chanted “God is great”, prayed in mosques, and celebrated the end of Assad’s rule. People chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns. Teenagers picked up weapons apparently discarded by security forces and fired into the air.
Soldiers and police fled their posts and looters broke into the Defense Ministry. Families wandered the presidential palace, walking by damaged portraits of Assad. Other parts of the capital were empty and shops were closed.
WHAT LED TO ASSAD’s FALL?
According to news agency AFP, Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International think tank, said this week that “the main factor” in the rebels’ success was “regime weakness and reduced international assistance to Assad”.
Islamist rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani’s “work on building up institutions and centralising much of the rebellion under his own control is also a big part of the story”, he added.
Syria’s grinding civil war began with a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011. The front lines had remained largely unchanged for the past four years until the rebels launched their massive offensive.
HOW DID DAMASCUS LOOK?
Roads leading into the city were mostly empty, apart from motorcycles carrying armed men and rebel vehicles caked with mud as camouflage.
Some men could be seen looting a shopping centre on the road between the capital and the Lebanese border. The myriad checkpoints lining the road to Damascus were empty. Posters of Assad were torn at his eyes. A burning Syrian military truck was parked diagonally on the road out of the city.
A thick column of black smoke billowed from the Mazzeh neighbourhood, where Israeli strikes earlier had targeted Syrian state security branches, according to two security sources.
Intermittent gunfire rang out in apparent celebration.
Shops and restaurants closed early in line with a curfew imposed by the rebels. Just before it came into effect, people could be seen briskly walking home with stacks of bread.
Thousands of people in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting “Freedom.”
People were seen walking inside the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, with some leaving carrying furniture. A motorcycle was parked on the intricately-laid parquet floor of a gilded hall.
The Syrian rebel coalition said it was working to complete the power transfer to a transitional governing body with executive powers.
JOE BIDEN SPEAKS ON SYRIA CRISIS
US President Joe Biden on Sunday said deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad should be “held accountable” but called the nation’s political upheaval a “historic opportunity” for Syrians to rebuild their country.
In the first full US reaction to Assad’s overthrow by an Islamist-led coalition of rebel factions, Biden also warned that Washington would “remain vigilant” against the emergence of terrorist groups, announcing that US forces had just conducted fresh strikes against militants from the Islamic State organisation.
“The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice,” Biden said from the White House. “It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria.”
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYS ‘HISTORIC DAY’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria was a “historic day in the Middle East” and the fall of a “central link in Iran’s axis of evil”.
Netanyahu said the events are “a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, Assad’s main supporters. It has triggered a chain reaction across the Middle East, empowering those seeking to break free from this oppressive regime.”
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