Beirut: The 50-year rule of the Assad family came to an abrupt end early Sunday morning as the government collapsed amid claims that rebels had entered the Syrian capital, Damascus, and that President Bashar-al-Assad had fled the country. After this people took to the streets and celebrated. A Syrian state television channel aired a video statement by a group of people in which they are seen saying that President Bashar Assad has been removed from power and that all prisoners in prison have been released.
Assad has left the capital
Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Associated Press that Assad left Damascus early Sunday morning. Residents of the capital have heard gunshots and explosions. Iran’s state television channel, which has been a key supporter of Assad during the war in Syria, reported that Assad had left the capital. The television channel cited Qatar’s Al Jazeera News Network for the information but did not provide any details.
People gathered to celebrate
Crowds of Syrians gathered in a Damascus square on Sunday morning to celebrate, chanting anti-Assad slogans and honking car horns. In some areas, bullets were also fired in celebration. Soldiers and police officers fled their posts and the rebels entered the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense.
People celebrate after the end of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria
What did the locals say?
“I cannot express my feelings,” said lawyer Omar Daher, 29, a local resident. I cannot believe the fear in which he (Assad) and his father made us live for many years and I was living in a state of terror and terror.” Daher said that his father was given security and his brother was killed. was detained by the forces and what happened to him is not known. He said Assad was “a criminal, a dictator and an animal.” Ghazal al-Sharif, another man from central Damascus, said: “Shame on the president and the entire Assad family.”
The police headquarters appeared empty
An Associated Press (AP) reporter in Damascus said he saw groups of armed residents on the outskirts of the capital and heard gunfire. The city’s main police station looked empty, its doors open and no officers outside. Another AP reporter took footage of an abandoned military outpost that showed uniforms lying on the ground beneath a poster of Assad. Cries of “Allah-hu-Akbar” are being heard from the mosques. This is the first time since 2018 that the rebels have reached inside Damascus.
People celebrate after the end of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria
Those close to the Assad government kept their distance
Syrian troops recaptured the outskirts of the capital in 2018 after years of siege. The pro-government Sham FM radio said Damascus airport had been evacuated and all flights had been grounded. The rebels also announced that they had entered Saidnaya military prison north of the capital and freed prisoners. Meanwhile, organizations that were previously close to the Assad government tried to distance themselves from him.
Media personnel are not to blame
“We are witnessing the beginning of a new chapter for Syria,” wrote the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan. We thank Allah that they did not shed more blood. We believe and we are confident that Syria will be for all Syrians.” The newspaper also said that media personnel should not be blamed for publishing government statements in the past. “We just followed the instructions and published the news they sent us,” she said. It soon became clear that this was a lie.
People celebrate after the end of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria
The price has increased
A local resident told The Associated Press that many shops in the capital were closed and those that were open had run out of essentials such as sugar. Some shopkeepers are selling goods at three times the normal price. The United Nations said it was sending its non-critical staff out of the country as a precaution. Meanwhile, the newly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Saturday that the United States should avoid military action in Syria. “This is not our fight,” he said in a post on social media.
But know
The rebel offensive in Syria began on November 27 when gunmen captured Aleppo, Syria’s largest northern city, and Hama, the country’s fourth largest. Syria’s civil war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s population. Millions of Syrians fled across the border to Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon, and into Europe as the uprising turned into civil war. (AP)
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