By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Timour Azhari
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown vacation spot on Sunday, two senior military officers informed Reuters, as rebels stated they’d entered the capital with no signal of military deployments.
1000’s in automobiles and on foot congregated at a primary sq. in Damascus waving and chanting “Freedom”, witnesses stated.
“We have fun with the Syrian folks the information of releasing our prisoners and releasing their chains and saying the tip of the period of injustice in Sednaya jail,” stated the rebels.
Sednaya is a big army jail on the outskirts Damascus the place the Syrian authorities detained hundreds.
A Syrian Air aircraft took off from Damascus airport across the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, in response to information from the Flightradar web site.
The plane initially flew in direction of Syria’s coastal area, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, however then made an abrupt U-turn and flew in the other way for a couple of minutes earlier than disappearing off the map.
Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm who was on board.
Simply hours earlier, rebels introduced they’d gained full management of the important thing metropolis of Homs after solely a day of combating, leaving Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread.
Intense sounds of taking pictures have been heard within the centre of the Damascus, two residents stated on Sunday, though it was not instantly clear what the supply of the taking pictures was.
In rural areas southwest of the capital, native youths and former rebels took benefit of the lack of authority to come back to the streets in acts of defiance towards the Assad household’s authoritarian rule.
1000’s of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the military withdrew from the central metropolis, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free” and “Lengthy dwell Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad”.
Rebels fired into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial management has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the army.
The autumn of Homs offers the insurgents management over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key freeway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal area that’s the stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect and the place his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.
Homs’ seize can be a robust image of the insurgent motion’s dramatic comeback within the 13-year-old battle. Swathes of Homs have been destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the military years in the past. The combating floor down the insurgents, who have been pressured out.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the primary insurgent chief, known as the seize of Homs a historic second and urged fighters to not hurt “those that drop their arms”.
Rebels freed hundreds of detainees from town jail. Safety forces left in haste after burning their paperwork.
Residents of quite a few Damascus districts turned out to protest Assad on Saturday night, and safety forces have been both unwilling or unable to clamp down.
Syrian insurgent commander Hassan Abdul Ghani stated in a press release early Sunday that operations have been ongoing to “fully liberate” the countryside round Damascus and insurgent forces have been trying towards the capital.
In a single suburb, a statue of Assad’s father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, was toppled and torn aside.
The Syrian military stated it was reinforcing round Damascus, and state tv reported on Saturday that Assad remained within the metropolis.
Outdoors town, rebels swept throughout your complete southwest over 24 hours and established management.
EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO ASSAD RULE
The autumn of Homs and menace to the capital pose a direct existential hazard to the Assad dynasty’s five-decade reign over Syria and the continued affect there of its primary regional backer, Iran.
The tempo of occasions has shocked Arab capitals and raised fears of a brand new wave of regional instability.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Russia issued a joint assertion saying the disaster was a harmful growth and calling for a political resolution.
However there was no indication they agreed on any concrete steps, with the state of affairs inside Syria altering by the hour.
Syria’s civil warfare, which erupted in 2011 as an rebellion towards Assad’s rule, dragged in large exterior powers, created area for jihadist militants to plot assaults around the globe and despatched tens of millions of refugees into neighbouring states.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest insurgent group, is the previous al Qaeda affiliate in Syria regarded by the U.S. and others as a terrorist organisation, and lots of Syrians stay fearful it is going to impose draconian Islamist rule.
Golani has tried to reassure minorities that he is not going to intrude with them and the worldwide group that he opposes Islamist assaults overseas. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured every week in the past, there haven’t been experiences of reprisals.
When requested on Saturday whether or not he believed Golani, Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov replied, “The proof of the pudding is within the consuming”.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group withdrew from the Syrian metropolis of Qusayr on the border with Lebanon earlier than insurgent forces seized it, Syrian military sources stated on Sunday.
A minimum of 150 armoured automobiles carrying a whole lot of Hezbollah fighters left town, lengthy some extent on the route for arms transfers and fighters transferring out and in of Syria, the sources stated. Israel hit one of many convoys because it was departing, one supply stated.
ALLIES’ ROLE IN SUPPORTING ASSAD
Assad lengthy relied on allies to subdue the rebels. Russian warplanes carried out bombing whereas Iran despatched allied forces together with Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to bolster the Syrian army and storm rebel strongholds.
However Russia has been centered on the warfare in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered large losses in its personal gruelling warfare with Israel, considerably limiting its potential or that of Iran to bolster Assad.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has stated the U.S. shouldn’t be concerned within the battle and will “let it play out”.
