Syrian President Bashar Assad has fled the country after a coalition of rebel groups stormed Damascus, ending his family’s five-decade rule over the Arab Republic, Reuters reported on Sunday morning.
Syria’s army command notified officers on Sunday that the regime had fallen, an officer who was informed of the move told the press agency.
A Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus International Airport as the capital was being taken by the rebels. Reuters said it could not immediately ascertain the destination or who was on board.
Rebel fighters declared the capital “liberated” in a televised statement carried on state television on Sunday. “Damascus has been liberated, and the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown,” a spokesman stated, adding that “prisoners in regime prisons have been released.”
“We ask people and fighters to protect all property in Free Syria,” added the rebel spokesman. “Long live Syria free for all Syrians of all sects.”
Footage verified by CNN showed rebel fighters entering the presidential palace in Damascus on Sunday morning, firing in the air in celebration.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Saturday Assad had been largely abandoned by his key allies, Russia and Iran.
Assad’s brutal and repressive reign left his government vulnerable and the people of Syria “fed up,” said Sullivan. At the same time, the wars in Ukraine and Lebanon had robbed Assad of his allies’ backing, he added.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Assad remained in the country, though Egypt and Jordan had urged the dictator, who took over from his father in 2000, to flee and announce a government in exile.
Syria’s Arab Socialist Baath Party came to power in a 1963 coup. In 1970, Hafez Assad seized power in an internal party coup. Following his father’s death in 2000, Bashar Assad inherited control of the regime.
After the Syrian president in August 2013 launched a chemical attack on his own citizens, killing more than 1,000, then-U.S. President Barack Obama failed to enforce a “red line” set the year prior. The government in Damascus proceeded to gas thousands of Syrian civilians to death.
Government resistance appeared to be crumbling elsewhere as well on Friday, with U.S.-backed Kurds taking the city of Deir al-Zour in the east and rebel uprisings around Daraa province near the border with Israel.
On Nov. 30, opposition forces stormed the Iranian consulate in Aleppo as part of their advance into the city, Tehran’s Foreign Ministry said at the time, after footage on social media showed fighters in the building.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed late last month that the surprise offensive was part of “a plot by the Israeli regime and the U.S. to undermine regional security,” Iran’s IRNA broadcaster reported.
Syrian experts told Fox News on Sunday that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham seeks to impose a “Talibanesque society with a few tweaks.”
