Bashar al-Assad Reportedly Flees Syria!
Celebrations Erupt Across Syrian Cities as Assad Regime Appears to Fall
Syrians took to the streets in celebration as reports emerged that President Bashar al-Assad's regime had collapsed after over 50 years of rule by his family. Rebel forces claimed to have captured the capital, Damascus, following a swift and decisive two-week offensive.
Two senior Syrian military officers informed Reuters that Assad had fled Damascus, though his exact destination remains unknown. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Assad had left the country, allegedly flying out of Damascus airport before security forces abandoned their posts. These claims have not been independently verified.
Assad’s absence from public view coincided with the rapid advance of Islamist insurgents, whose offensive began in a small northwestern enclave. Within 11 days, the offensive reportedly dismantled Assad's rule. Rebel forces announced the liberation of prisoners from Sednaya prison, infamous for its reputation as a symbol of the regime’s brutality. Video footage from Damascus showed people tearing down posters of Assad, with one man scaling a hospital sign to remove his image. In the capital's central square, citizens climbed on top of tanks in jubilation.
In Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city and taken by insurgents just a week earlier, mosques broadcast celebratory chants and singing, punctuated by ululations and cheers echoing across the rooftops.
The Assad dynasty began in 1971 when Hafez al-Assad seized power in a military coup. Bashar al-Assad inherited the presidency in 2000, maintaining control through a vast security apparatus that crushed dissent with detention centers and widespread surveillance.
In 2011, Bashar al-Assad violently suppressed a popular uprising that called for his removal. The peaceful protests quickly spiraled into a devastating civil war that has claimed over 300,000 lives in more than a decade. Assad’s regime became notorious for its brutal tactics, including indiscriminate airstrikes and the use of chemical weapons such as sarin nerve gas against civilians.
As celebrations unfold, the reported collapse of Assad’s regime marks a potentially transformative moment in Syria's tumultuous history, though the full implications remain uncertain. “Today Marks the End of 54 Years of Assad Family Rule in Syria”
“Today is the end of 54 years of the reign of the Assad family in Syria. This is the only regime I have known my entire life,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American physician who organized medical missions into Syria, including hospitals in Aleppo that were frequently targeted by Syrian and Russian airstrikes. “I don’t cry often in my adult life, but today I did. It has been fourteen long years of horror. This is our Berlin Wall moment,” he added.
Assad’s survival through nearly 14 years of civil war and unrest had been secured with critical support from Russia and Iran, enabling him to maintain control over a fractured state. His grip on power once seemed unshakable. However, a lightning advance by insurgents led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham dramatically altered the landscape, with the group seizing major towns along a strategic highway leading to Damascus.
As insurgents neared the capital, rebel groups in southern Syria captured towns south of Damascus, closing in from three directions. Syrian army officers were seen retreating, with some shedding their uniforms in favor of civilian clothing to blend into the fleeing crowds. Video footage from Damascus showed soldiers hastily changing clothes in the streets before scattering.
Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali released a video statement offering an olive branch to the opposition, suggesting the formation of a transitional government. “I am in my house and have not left, because of my belonging to this country,” he said, though he made no mention of Assad’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, insurgent leaders declared their intent to build a “new Syria,” vowing to leave the nation’s dark past behind.
The rapid rebel advance also saw the liberation of detention facilities notorious for their brutal treatment of detainees. Among them was Sednaya military prison, infamous for its inhumane methods of torture and symbolic of the Assad regime’s repression. Rights groups have estimated that at least 100,000 people have been forcibly disappeared or remain missing since 2011.
Footage circulating online showed crowds flooding the streets near Sednaya as prisoners streamed out into the night, many running toward freedom for the first time in years. Across Syria, a sense of catharsis gripped the streets as people celebrated the collapse of a regime that had dominated their lives for over half a century. Exiled Syrian human rights defender Ranim Badenjki, of the Syria Campaign, expressed overwhelming emotion upon hearing the news of Assad’s departure, saying she was in tears of joy, describing the moment as "too good to be true."
“For years, we believed Assad was invincible, propped up by powerful allies and international leaders eager to embrace him. But today, I’m overjoyed to see that it was the Syrian people themselves who made this dream a reality,” she said.
Reflecting on the immense loss and suffering of her fellow Syrians, Badenjki added, “I think of those we’ve lost in recent years—killed for protesting, for posting a message on social media. I think of the people tortured to death simply for providing medicine or helping those in need. I think of my grandfather, who was tortured under Hafez al-Assad."
Her happiness, however, was mixed with a deep sorrow and anxiety over the fate of those still missing in Syria's brutal and labyrinthine detention system.
“I want to celebrate – but I’m also haunted by the thought of my friend’s father, forcibly disappeared by the regime 11 years ago. I want to know he’s still alive, that he can be freed. I need to know what happened to my missing cousin.”
Moayad Hokan, a Syrian analyst in exile, also spoke of the surreal nature of the moment.
“Just a few months ago, all of us thought this day would never come,” he said. “Even now, every time I say that the Assad regime has fallen, I can barely believe it’s real.”
Source: The Guardian
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