Politics
al-Assad regime falls in Syria after 53 years of iron rule
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “reach out” to the opposition and hand over functions to a transitional government
December 8, 2024 11:23am
Updated: December 9, 2024 9:22am
The flight of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from his country this Sunday ended 53 years of rule by the Assad family, after a lightning offensive by the rebels that crossed government-controlled territory and entered the capital in 10 days.
Syrian state television shared a video statement in which a group of men said that Bashar Assab had been overthrown and that all political prisoners had been freed.
The man who read the statement confirmed that the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus, an opposition group, called on all citizens and opposition fighters to preserve the state institutions of the “free Syrian state.”
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “reach out” to the opposition and hand over functions to a transitional government but said nothing about reports that Assad had left the country.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Associated Press that Assad had left by air from Damascus early Sunday.
As the sun rose, crowds of people gathered to pray in the city's mosques and to celebrate the fall of the dictatorship in the central squares of Damascus, chanting anti-Assad slogans and honking car horns. Celebratory gunshots were heard in some areas.
Several soldiers and police officers abandoned their posts and fled, and looting took place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense.
An Associated Press journalist in Damascus reported seeing a group of armed residents along the road on the outskirts of the capital and hearing gunshots.
The city's main police headquarters appeared to be abandoned, while another journalist from the same outlet recorded images of an abandoned army checkpoint, with uniforms lying on the ground under a poster with Assad's face.
Images broadcast in media linked to the opposition showed a tank in one of the central squares along with a group of people who gathered to celebrate.
This is the first time opposition forces have reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital after a multi-year siege.
