World
Syrian rebels say President Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus
Syrian rebels remove regime flag from monument
Video posted by pro-opposition media in Syria shows militants in Aleppo’s western suburbs removing the Syrian national flag from a monument.
Syrian rebels said they seized Damascus on Sunday and long-time President Bashar al-Assad boarded a plane for an unknown destination as his regime quickly collapsed after a week of military advances against his forces.
Rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist movement that was once an al-Qaeda affiliate, declared in a statement on state-owned TV that Syria was “free from the tyrant” Assad.
Russia’s foreign ministry also confirmed Assad had fled Syria’s capital, his government’s stronghold.
Assad’s exact whereabouts were not known. His apparent ouster would bring to a close nearly 25 years of his tight-grip rule, liberate Syria from a family dynasty that has brutally controlled Syria for double that time and inject fresh turmoil into a Middle East region already spilling over with warfare and political uncertainty. Assad’s downfall, if it’s confirmed, also marks the latest stunning development in one of the deadliest civil wars of the 21st century.
Unverified footage published on social media appeared to show residents of Damascus and other cities pouring onto the streets, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone.” Rebels said they would swiftly free political prisoners.
Syria’s Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali said he was willing to “cooperate” with any new leadership chosen by Syria’s people so Syria “can be a normal country that builds good relations with its neighbors and the world.”
U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson Sean Savett said President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners.” President-elect Donald Trump said in a post on X and his own social media platform that the U.S. should have nothing to do with the war in Syria.
“THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,” he wrote. “LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED.” Trump later followed that post up by saying Assad had fled Syria because Russia was no longer willing to protect him.
“Assad is gone,” he wrote.
What’s happening in Syria?
Hours earlier, rebels announced they had gained full control of the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting.
The fall of Homs came after a new Syrian rebel offensive that started about 10 days ago. It gave insurgents control over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from a coastal region that’s key to the power of Assad’s Alawite sect. The Alawites are a Muslim minority group who have ruled Syria for decades.
Homs is also where Assad’s Russian allies, who enabled him to stay in power during a 13-year-old civil war that has killed an estimated 300,000 civilians, have a naval base and air base. Russia provided Assad’s government with vital air cover. Assad was also propped up by Iranian-backed militants including Hezbollah fighters.
However, analysts say that Assad was effectively left to fend for himself because Russia was distracted by its war in Ukraine and Lebanon-based Hezbollah has been under intense pressure from an Oct. 7-related conflict with Israel.
What do we know about Bashar al-Assad?
Assad inherited Syria’s leadership from his father Hafez, a powerful military dictator who leaned heavily on the nation’s feared security services to crush dissent and suppress all challenges to his rule.
When the younger, western-educated Assad, who studied to be a dentist, took over from his father in 2000 there were hopes Syria might chart a new reformist course for its citizens and ties with the international community.
Those hopes faded fast.
What began as a series of hopeful pro-democracy protests in Syria in 2011 ballooned into a devastating and intractable conflict that contributed to one of the most severe refugee crises since World War II.
Syria’s war has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, displaced millions and helped spur the rise – then entrenchment, then toppling – of the Islamic State terrorist group.
According to the United Nations, humanitarian groups and Syria watchdogs, Assad’s violence has taken many forms: imposing starvation sieges on rebel-held areas; repeatedly bombing, with Russian assistance, hospitals and civilian infrastructure; arresting and torturing thousands of activists, bloggers and civilians, then holding them at secret prisons deep underground, where they languish without trial. He has also allegedly used chlorine bombs and sarin gas – chemical weapons – against opposition fighters, killing children and civilians.
Assad’s downfall: What happens next in Syria?
Assad’s apparent toppling raises hard-to-answer questions about what comes next for Syria. It’s possible Assad could surface in Russia. Moscow has been known to give shelter to exiled authoritarians and dictators.
The two countries have a bond shaped by their opposition to the West during the Cold War and nurtured by Moscow’s more recent attempt to have a more assertive foreign policy on the world stage.
Geir Pederson, the United Nation’s special envoy to Syria, called it a “watershed moment.”
“To those displaced, this moment renews the vision of returning to homes once lost,” he said in a statement. “To families separated by war, the beginnings of reunions bring hope. To those unjustly detained, and the families of the detained and the missing, the opening of prison doors reminds us of justice’s eventual reach.”
The collapse of Assad’s regime could also bring news for one American family.
Austin Tice is an American journalist who’s been missing in Syria for more than a decade. His mother Debra said last week said that she was confident her son was alive. She cited information she said came from a “significant source,” without elaborating. Her son is a former U.S. Marine who was working as a freelance journalist in Syria ahead of his final year at Georgetown Law School when he vanished in 2012.
Tice, now 43, has not been heard from since. A video released a month after he disappeared shows him blindfolded and trembling as he’s led up a hillside by armed men. “Oh, Jesus,” Tice says in the video. “Oh, Jesus,” he repeats.
Debra Tice did not immediately respond to a comment request Sunday.
Mohammed Albasha, founder of Basha Report, a Virginia-based consultancy specializing in Middle East affairs, said the critical question for Syria is how effectively the rebels can establish control and manage the transition of power.
“Will Syria follow the path of Libya, descending into prolonged chaos? While many questions linger about the nation’s future, one thing seems certain: today likely marks the end of the Assad regime.”
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