President Assad reportedly flees Syria as rebels enter capital Damascus

A Syrian opposition war monitor and two senior army officers said early Sunday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left the country as rebels say they had entered Damascus following a stunning advance across the country, with residents of the capital reporting the sounds of gunfire and explosions.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Associated Press that Assad took a flight from Damascus early Sunday. Reuters reported the same thing, citing two senior army officers.

State television in Iran, Assad’s main backer in the years of war in Syria, reported that he had left the capital. It cited Qatar’s Al Jazeera news network for the information and did not elaborate.

There was no immediate official statement from the Syrian government.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government.

“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalali said in a video statement. He said he would go to his office to continue work in the morning and called on Syrian citizens not to deface public property.

He did not address reports that Assad had left the country.

An Associated Press journalist in Damascus reported seeing groups of armed residents along the road on the outskirts of the capital and hearing sounds of gunshots. The city’s main police headquarters appeared to be abandoned, its door left ajar with no officers outside.

Another AP journalist shot footage of an abandoned army checkpoint where uniforms were discarded on the ground under a poster of Assad’s face.

Residents of the capital reported sounds of gunfire and explosions. Footage broadcast on opposition-linked media showed a tank in one of the capital’s central squares, while a small group of people gathered in celebration. Calls of “God is great” rang out from mosques.

It was the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured the area following a years-long siege.

The pro-government Sham FM radio reported that the Damascus airport was evacuated and all flights halted.

The insurgents also announced they had entered the notorious Saydnaya military prison north of the capital and “liberated our prisoners” there.

The night before, opposition forces had taken the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it. The city stands at an important intersection between Damascus, the capital, and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus — the Syrian leader’s base of support and home to a Russian strategic naval base.

Sham FM reported that government forces took positions outside Syria’s third-largest city, without elaborating.  Abdurrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian troops and members of different security agencies have withdrawn from the city, adding that rebels have entered parts of it.

The insurgency announced later Saturday that it had taken over Homs. The capture of Homs is a major victory for insurgents, who have already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama, as well as large parts of the south, in a lightning offensive that began Nov. 27. Analysts said Homs falling into rebel hands would be a game-changer.

The rebels’ moves into Damascus came after the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern part of the country, leaving more areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters.

Should Damascus fall to the opposition forces, the government would have control of only two of 14 provincial capitals: Latakia and Tartus.

The advances in the past week were among the largest in recent years by opposition factions, led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. As they have advanced, the insurgents — led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS — have met little resistance from the Syrian army. 

The rapid rebel gains, coupled with the lack of support from Assad’s erstwhile allies, posed the most serious threat to his rule since the start of the war.

The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.” Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad’s chief international backer, said he feels “sorry for the Syrian people.”

In Damascus, people rushed to stock up on supplies. Thousands rushed the Syria border with Lebanon, trying to leave the country.

Many shops in the capital were shuttered, a resident told The Associated Press, and those that remained open ran out of staples such as sugar. Some shops were selling items at three times the normal price.

The UN said it was moving non-critical staff outside the country as a precaution.

Assad isolated

Assad has had little, if any, help from his allies. Russia is busy with its war in Ukraine. Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which at one point sent thousands of fighters to shore up Assad’s forces, has been weakened by a year-long conflict with Israel. Iran has seen its proxies across the region degraded by regular Israeli airstrikes.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday posted on social media that the U.S. should avoid engaging militarily in Syria.

Pedersen said a date for the talks in Geneva on the implementation of UN Resolution 2254 would be announced later. The resolution, adopted in 2015, called for a Syrian-led political process, starting with the establishment of a transitional governing body, followed by the drafting of a new constitution and ending with UN-supervised elections.

Later Saturday, foreign ministers and senior diplomats from eight key countries — including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran — along with Pedersen, gathered on the sidelines of the Doha summit to discuss the situation in Syria.

In a statement issued late Saturday, the participants affirmed their support for a political solution to the Syrian crisis “that would lead to the end of military activity and protect civilians.” They also agreed on the importance of strengthening international efforts to increase aid to the Syrian people.

The insurgents’ march 

Abdurrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said insurgents were in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. Opposition fighters were also marching from eastern Syria toward the Damascus suburb of Harasta, he said.

HTS controls much of northwest Syria, and in 2017 it set up a “salvation government” to run day-to-day affairs in the region. In recent years, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has sought to remake the group’s image, cutting ties with al-Qaeda, ditching hard-line officials and vowing to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance.

The shock offensive began Nov. 27, during which gunmen captured the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and the central city of Hama, the country’s fourth-largest city.

Opposition activists said on Saturday that a day earlier, insurgents entered Palmyra, which is home to invaluable archeological sites that had been in government hands since being taken from the Islamic militant group ISIS in 2017.

To the south, Syrian troops left much of the province of Quneitra, including the main Baath City, activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops have withdrawn from much of the two southern provinces.

The Syrian army said in a statement on Saturday that it has carried out redeployment and repositioning in Sweida and Daraa after its checkpoints came under attack by “terrorists.” The army said it is setting up a “strong and coherent defensive and security belt in the area,” apparently to defend Damascus from the south.

The Syrian government has referred to opposition gunmen as terrorists since the conflict broke out in March 2011.