Bashar al-Assad and family granted asylum in Russia

“Assad, along with members of his family, has arrived in Moscow.

“Russia, on humanitarian grounds, has provided them with asylum,” the source told the Tass news agency.

By Edmund Bower in Lebanon

Almost every car approaching the Syrian border from Lebanon is waving Free Syria flags.

People are beeping their horns and chanting pro-opposition slogans. At least one person carried a photo of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the Islamist commander of the rebel forces Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has led the fighting that deposed of President Assad.

There are also at least a couple of black Islamist flags associated with extremist groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State, although they are in the tiny majority amid the sea of red, green, and white.

President Biden is meeting with his national security advisers on Sunday to discuss the situation in Syria.

“The president will meet with his national security team this morning to receive an update on the situation in Syria,” Sean Savett, the National Security Council spokesman, posted on X.

The US military has about 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of the international coalition that was established in 2014 to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group.

Supporters of rebels who ousted Assad have entered some Syrian embassies around the world to hoist their flag.

About 150 people cheered and shouted “freedom!” as a man at the Syrian embassy in Madrid threw the Assad government’s flag to the ground and hoisted the black, green and white flag with three stars used by the rebels.

“We are going to create a free country for all the Syrian people,” Bilal Kutaini, 32, a dentist, said outside the embassy.

In Athens, police entered the Syrian embassy and detained four people — though they left the flag that had been hoisted flying. Protesters there had also torn down Assad’s portrait in the embassy, Greek media said.

Several supporters of the Syrian opposition laughed and hugged each other in front of the embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade and raised the rebel flag on a pole in the courtyard. The flag was also raised in the Stockholm, the Swedish broadcaster TV4 said.

By Paul Conroy

Like people the world over, I’m watching the rapid advance of Syrian rebels and the seemingly unstoppable toppling of towns once considered solid bastions of the Assad regime. But I’m focusing on one city. On Saturday, insurgents were said to be on the verge of capturing Homs.

Just the name brings back painful memories: if it weren’t for the bravery of its residents, I would almost certainly be dead; and if it weren’t for the brutality of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, my friend Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times foreign correspondent, might still be alive.

• Read in full: Assad made a hell of Homs, and my friend Marie Colvin his target

Israel conducted three airstrikes against a major security complex in the Kafr Sousa district of Damascus, along with a research centre where Iranian scientists are said to have developed missiles, two regional security sources have told Reuters.

Meanwhile the IDF has issued an “urgent warning” to residents of five villages in southern Syria as troops push into the buffer zone between the two countries.

“The fighting in your area is forcing the IDF to act and we do not intend to harm you,” Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman said on X.

Directed at residents of Ofaniya, al-Quneitra, al-Hamidiyah, Samdaniya al-Gharbiyya and al-Qahtaniyah, all close to the Israeli border, the warning continued: “For your safety, you must stay at home and not go out until further notice.”

Bashar al-Assad, 59, is the third of five children of Hafez al-Assad, a member of Syria’s minority Alawite sect who become the nation’s leader in 1971 after ruthlessly rising up the ranks of the Baath Party.

Bashar initially held no political ambitions and studied medicine at Damascus University before moving to the UK in the early 1990s to specialise in ophthalmology at the Western Eye Hospital in London. Contemporaries described him as the “geeky IT guy”.

When his older brother, Bassel, died in a car accident in 1994, Bashar was summoned back to Syria to replace him as heir apparent to the presidency.

• Read his full profile here

Bewildered and elated prisoners have been pouring out of Syrian jails, shouting with joy.

Newly freed prisoners ran through the Damascus streets holding up the fingers of both hands to show how many years they had been incarcerated, asking passers-by what had happened, not immediately understanding that Assad had fallen.

Throughout the civil war, security forces held hundreds of thousands of people in detention camps where international human rights organisations say torture was universal practice. Families were often told nothing of their loved-ones’ fate.

UN war crimes investigators described Bashar al-Assad’s fall as a “historic new beginning”, urging those taking charge to ensure the “atrocities” committed under his regime are not repeated.

“The Syrian people should be allowed to view this historical moment as the end of decades of state-organised repression,” Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the United Nations commission of inquiry on Syria, said.

The UK welcomes the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s “barbaric regime”, Sir Keir Starmer has said as he called for the restoration of “peace and stability”.

The prime minister has called for all sides to protect civilians and ensure aid can reach the vulnerable as he responded to the overthrowal of the Syrian regime.

Speaking for the first time since news of Assad’s downfall broke this morning, Starmer said in a statement: “The developments in Syria in recent hours and days are unprecedented, and we are speaking to our partners in the region and monitoring the situation closely.

“The Syrian people have suffered under Assad’s barbaric regime for too long and we welcome his departure. Our focus is now on ensuring a political solution prevails and peace and stability is restored.

“We call on all sides to protect civilians and minorities, and ensure essential aid can reach the most vulnerable in the coming hours and days.”

Syria’s rebels have said their leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, arrived in Damascus hours after fighters seized the capital and said ousted President Assad of Syria.

Identifying him by his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, the statement on Telegram said he had “knelt down prostrating to God in thanks” on the ground after arriving in Damascus.

A video showed him kneeling in a field and bringing his head to the ground.

Cars are stood bumper to bumper on the road from Lebanon to Syria as a festival atmosphere has broken out.

People are going car to car giving out sweets and cookies, while others are letting off fireworks. There are Free Syria flags everywhere.

“We’re happy,” said 19-year-old Mohamed Ahmed Khatib who was there with his family “to celebrate”. He has lived as a refugee in Lebanon since he was four. The family are not crossing the border right away but “God willing, I will return to my home in Aleppo to work. Thank God, He has delivered us from the dog Bashar al-Assad”.

Men, women and children have been piling into Assad’s luxurious home and garden, which had been off limits to ordinary citizens until his departure.

Many of the rooms in the palace in Damascus have been stripped bare by looters save for some furniture and a portrait of the Syrian dictator on the ground, AFP reported.

“I came for revenge; they oppressed us in incredible ways,” Abu Omar, 44, told the news agency, as he showed off some of the images he had captured on his phone.

The residence in the upscale al-Maliki neighbourhood of the capital comprises three six-storey buildings.

As he moved from room to room, Omar said he felt overjoyed. “I no longer feel afraid. My only concern is that we unite [as Syrians] and build this country together.”

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, welcomed Assad’s fall as “good news” and urged a political solution to stabilise the war-stricken country.

“Bashar al-Assad oppressed his people brutally. He has countless lives on his conscience and has driven numerous people to flee, many of whom have arrived in Germany,” he said in a statement.

President Macron of France said: “The barbaric state has fallen. Finally. I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience. In this moment of uncertainty, I wish them peace, freedom and unity.”

Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, said on X: “I am following with concerned attention the evolution of the situation in Syria. I am in constant contact with our embassy in Damascus and with the office of the prime minister. I have called an emergency meeting at 10:30 at the foreign ministry.”

The commander of a Kurdish-led force in Syria hailed “historic” moments on Sunday with the fall of the “authoritarian regime” of Bashar al-Assad.

“In Syria, we are living through historic moments as we witness the fall of the authoritarian regime in Damascus,” said Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Syrian Democratic Forces that controls large swathes of northeast Syria.

“This change presents an opportunity to build a new Syria based on democracy and justice that guarantees the rights of all Syrians,” he added.

By Samuel Ramani

The regime of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has fallen. On November 27, a rebel coalition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a rapid-fire offensive against Assad’s forces. Barely a week later, Aleppo and Hama — Syria’s second and third largest cities respectively — were under rebel control.

Emboldened by these successes, Syrian opposition forces carried out offensive operations targeting Homs and came knocking on the outskirts of Damascus, dreaming of regime change.

By the time he fled the country, ending a 24-year rule that veered from optimism to brutal repression and death, Assad was facing a revolt on three fronts.

But how did we get here?

• Read in full: Assad may have fled, but Syria’s rebels are far from saviours

Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the ousting of Assad, saying that the “central link in Iran’s axis of evil” has fallen in Syria. He said that the historic event was a blow to both Iran and Hezbollah.

The Israeli prime minister said that the IDF had seized a buffer zone in the Golan Heights, the Syrian-Israeli border region established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Damascus.

Netanyahu said the decades-old agreement had collapsed and that Syrian troops had abandoned their positions, necessitating the Israeli takeover.

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it. The international community, except for the US, views it as occupied Syrian territory.

Iran’s foreign ministry said it expected that the “longstanding and friendly relations” between it and Syria are expected to continue.

It said it will monitor developments in Syria closely and will “adopt appropriate approaches and positions”. Tehran would “continue its consultations with all influential parties”, especially in the region, the ministry said.

It said that only the Syrian people are responsible for the country’s fate and that there should be no “foreign imposition or destructive intervention”.

US

The White House issued a statement saying: “President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners.”

Meanwhile the president-elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: “Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer.”

Russia

Russia’s foreign ministry issued a statement confirming that Assad has left office and the country. The ministry did not say where Assad is and said Russia has not taken part in the talks around his departure.

It said Russia’s military bases in Syria had been put on a state of high alert, but that there was no serious threat to them at the current time. Moscow is in touch with all Syrian opposition groups and urges all sides to refrain from violence, it said.

Angela Rayner said the UK would prioritise working alongside the UN to achieve “stability across the whole region” after Assad’s alleged resignation.

The deputy prime minister told Times Radio: “What we need now, alongside [a] UN resolution…is security for the region and for the Syrian people.”

Rayner described Assad as a “tyrant to the people of Syria”, adding: “We need to ensure civilians are protected alongside infrastructure.”

The commander of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) said “the future is ours” in a statement read out on Syrian state TV.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani added that there was “no room for turning back” and his group is “determined” to continue on the path it started in 2011 during the Arab Spring.

HTS led a coalition of militant rebels which seized several big cities in Syria, including Damascus, which led to the downfall of the Assad regime.

The Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said the “Assad regime collapsed and control of the country is changing hands”.

He told a conference in Doha, Qatar: “This didn’t happen overnight. For the last 13 years, the country has been in turmoil.”

Fidan said Ankara had been in contact with rebels in Syria to ensure that the militant Islamic State group and the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party which is banned in Turkey, cannot expand in the security vacuum, “taking advantage of the situation”.

President Macron of France welcomed the downfall of Assad’s “barbaric” regime.

Posting on X the French president said: “The barbaric state has fallen. At last. I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience. In this moment of uncertainty, I send them my wishes for peace, freedom, and unity.”

Hezbollah, a proxy of Iran and long-time backer of Assad, has withdrawn all of its forces from Syria, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters.

One of the sources said that Hezbollah forces deployed to Syria overnight between Thursday and Friday had been sent to oversee the pullback.

Hezbollah had sent a small number of forces to try and defend Homs from anti-government fighters before they completely seized the city on Saturday.

Confusion remains about the whereabouts of Bashar al-Assad, his wife Asma, and their two children.

A private jet was seen heading towards the United Arab Emirates from Syria on Sunday morning. Reuters, meanwhile, reported that a plane took off from Damascus airport around the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels.

Data from the Flightradar24 website initially flew towards Syria’s coastal region, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite ethnoreligious sect, but then flew in the opposite direction for a few minutes before disappearing off the map.

Two Syrian sources told Reuters there was a high probability that Assad may have been killed in a plane crash as it was a mystery why the plane took a surprise U-turn and disappeared off the map, according to Flightradar24 data.

However, others suggested it could merely have descended to avoid radar detection.

There are growing suspicions that Assad has already fled to Russia, the long-standing ally of the regime.

US officials suggested that the Syrian leader left Damascus on Saturday night as the rebels closed in on the outskirts of Damascus. Walla, a respected Israeli news site, cited one official who said that Assad and his family flew from Damascus to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase, intending to continue from there to Moscow. “We believed he was planning to escape to Russia,” one US officials was quoted as saying.

The Russian foreign ministry said Assad had left office and departed the country.

In a statement, the ministry did not say where Assad was now and said Russia has not taken part in the talks around his departure. “He decided to resign from the presidency and left the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power,” the ministry said.

Syrian rebels have announced a curfew in Damascus starting at 4pm local time (1pm GMT) until 5am. No further details have been announced.

The curfew comes as Syrians have poured on the capital’s streets and squares to celebrate the apparent fall of the Assad regime.

Suspected Israeli strikes have hit the Mazzeh district of Damascus, one Lebanese and one Syrian security source told Reuters.

Syrian media has also reported Israeli airstrikes in the Daraa and Suwayda areas in southern Syria, not far from the Israeli border.

The strikes come as the Israel Defence Forces said the deployment of its troops to a buffer zone between the two countries, carried out in co-ordination with the UN, would remain in place until the situation in Syria stabilises.

Israel, which tracks weapon movement within Syria to prevent them from reaching Hezbollah, has warned rebel groups not to approach the buffer zone.

Syrians will have to cope with a full-scale civil war alone, if one were to follow the departure of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, from the country, the deputy chairman of Russia’s upper house of parliament Konstantin Kosachyov said.

Writing on his official Telegram channel, Kosachyov said: “It’s a tragedy, I repeat, for everyone. And for us Russians. Our primary task is to ensure the safety of our compatriots and civilians, including of our diplomats and their families, and, of course, of the military personnel who are there for the sake of Syria, its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“If the people of Syria continue to need our support, it will be provided. But hardly in the context of a full-scale civil war. The Syrians will have to deal with that themselves.”

Earlier, the president-elect Donald Trump said the fall of Assad was inevitable after “his protector, Russia” shifted its focus to its war in Ukraine.

The foreign minister of Turkey, which hosts the world’s largest population of Syrian refugees, has stressed the importance of returning Syrian migrants.

Speaking to reporters in Doha, Hakan Fidan said the “return of Syrian migrants is especially important”, adding that the Turkish government had already started working on this.

Since civil war broke out in the country in 2011, more than six million Syrians have become refugees, 3.6 million of whom are thought to be living in Turkey. It has become a politically charged issue in Turkey with riots in the city of Kayseri over the summer.

President Erdogan of Turkey had been pressing the Assad regime for months to engage in negotiations, seeking a diplomatic solution to the conflict that could allow the return of refugees.

Syria’s foreign ministry said a “new page was being written” in history, calling on the country to unite.

“Today, a new page is being written in the history of Syria, to inaugurate a national covenant and charter that unites the word of the Syrians, unites them and does not divide them, in order to build one homeland in which justice and equality prevail and in which everyone enjoys all rights and duties, far from a single opinion,” it said.

The ministry added that it would remain “committed to serving all fellow citizens and managing their affairs”.

The UK should review the proscribed status of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham after the rebel group seized control of Damascus, the former head of MI6 has said.

Sir John Sawers said it would be “rather ridiculous” if Britain was unable to engage with HTS. The group has been a banned terror group under UK legislation since 2017, when the Home Office said it should be treated as an alternative name for al-Qaeda.

Sawer said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, its leader, has “made great efforts over the last ten years to distance himself” from al-Qaeda and other terror groups.

Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, also urged the home secretary to review the proscribed status.

• Read full report: Thousands gather in Damascus as Syria ‘free of Assad’

The apparent fall of Assad’s regime could give the Islamic State “space to find the ability to become active”, the US deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East Daniel Shapiro has said.

“We are aware that the chaotic and dynamic circumstances on the ground in Syria could give Isis space to find the ability to become active, to plan external operations,” Shapiro told the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain.

He added that “no one should shed any tears over the Assad regime” if its collapse is confirmed.

The diplomat went on to explain how America’s continued presence in the country was “solely to ensure the enduring defeat of Isis and has nothing to do with other aspects of this conflict”.

The UN envoy for Syria said the country was at “a watershed moment”.

Describing the drawn-out civil war as a “dark chapter [that] has left deep scars”, special envoy Geir Pedersen said: “Today we look forward with cautious hope to the opening of a new one — one of peace, reconciliation, dignity and inclusion for all Syrians.

“Today marks a watershed moment in Syria’s history — a nation that has endured nearly 14 years of relentless suffering and unspeakable loss,” he said, extending his “deepest solidarity to all who have borne the weight of death, destruction, detention and untold human rights violations”.

He stressed the “clear desire expressed by millions of Syrians that stable and inclusive transitional arrangements are put in place, that Syrian institutions continue to function”.

He appealed to all armed parties to “maintain … law and order, protect civilians and preserve public institutions”.

Israel has sent extra forces to the border with Syria and the buffer zone in between after rebel forces overtook the Quneitra and Daraa areas.

The IDF released a statement early Sunday morning saying it would not be “interfering with the internal events in Syria” after its defence chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, visited the border to approve a military strategy.

Halevi said Israel’s troops are closely monitoring developments and conducting assessments every few hours. Halevi promised an “offensive response” if “confusion does arise” among the “local factions who are taking control of the area”.

The American hostage Austin Tice, who has been held in Syria for over a decade, is alive, according to his mother.

At a meeting with national security officials at the White House, Debra Tice said she was confident her son was alive as she had information that came from a “significant source”, which had been vetted and deemed credible by the US government. “He is being cared for and he is well — we do know that,” she said.

Tice, a journalist who has been published by American outlets including the Washington Post, disappeared in August 2012 west of Damascus. He was last seen in a video released weeks later which showed him blindfolded and held by gunmen.

In 2021, two US officials, including incoming president Donald Trump’s top pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, travelled to the Syrian capital to hunt down information on Tice and other disappeared Americans in the war-torn country.

He could possibly have been held at Sednaya prison, which has been overrun by rebels.

The US is closely monitoring chemical weapons storage sites for any attempts by Assad loyalists to try to employ them against the rebels.

Assad’s forces are thought to have kept limited stockpiles of chemical weapons, including sarin nerve gas. Human rights agencies have repeatedly accused the regime of deploying chemical weapons against the Syrian people.

According to a report by the New York Times, officials assessed that the regime may attempt to use the remaining stockpiles in a last-ditch attempt to maintain their grip on power.

The Israeli media, citing Syrian sources, said Israeli warplanes struck a chemical weapons factory to stop the rebels taking hold of it.

Israel does not usually offer comment on strikes in Syria, but has previously acknowledged striking Iran-linked targets and weapons that were being transferred to armed groups such as Hezbollah.

The UK government would welcome the fall of the Assad regime, the deputy prime minister has said.
Angela Rayner said the Foreign Office had been working to evacuate UK citizens from the country before the situation reached a crisis point, although she did not know how many British nationals were currently in Syria.

She said the situation looked “very serious” but gave a cautious welcome to reports that Assad and his government had been ousted.

She told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “If [the] Assad regime has fallen, then I welcome that news, but what we need to see is a political resolution in line with the UN resolutions.

“We need to see civilians and infrastructure protected, far too many people have lost their lives, we need stability in that region.”

Syria’s prime minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said he was in contact with the rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani and ready to work for a handover of power, calling for free elections.

The rebels may be surprised at their own success, having captured all of the regime-held territories in a week before forcing Assad to flee the capital on Saturday night.

There is no clear plan for a government now, but the various factions, who include Islamists, US-backed Kurdish groups and Turkish-backed militias, will be likely to negotiate an interim government to share power.

“This change presents an opportunity to build a new Syria based on democracy and justice that secures the rights of all Syrians,” Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led group that controls north east Syria, said in a written statement.

President-elect Trump said the fall of Assad had been inevitable after he was abandoned by President Putin. “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer,” said Trump.

“There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on for ever.”

Earlier, Trump urged caution before any US involvement in Syria. Writing on X on Saturday night, he said “opposition fighters in Syria, in an unprecedented move, have totally taken over numerous cities”.

Trump took aim at President Obama for failing to enforce his “red line” in Syria, which was Assad’s use of chemical weapons on his people in 2013. “This is where former President Obama refused to honour his commitment of protecting the RED LINE IN THE SAND, and all hell broke out, with Russia stepping in,” Trump said.

“In any event, Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”

Iran’s embassy has been “stormed” by rebels in Damascus, Tehran’s English-language Press TV reported.

The Assad regime’s long-time backers had failed to come to his aid as rebels swept through the country. It came after officials in Tehran rejected claims that they had ordered staff to leave the country.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said over the weekend that his country would always provide support for the Syrian government and nation, adding: “We will continue this support on the basis of what Damascus asks from us.”

The Russian embassy in Syria said its staff were “fine” after urging them to leave the country on Friday. Russia, a staunch Assad ally, intervened decisively in 2015 to prop him up during Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011. Russian war bloggers have raised fears about the fate of two strategically important Russian military facilities in Syria.

The whereabouts of Assad is unknown. A Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus airport around the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, according to data from the Flightradar website.

The aircraft initially flew towards Syria’s coastal region, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, but then made an abrupt U-turn and flew in the opposite direction for a few minutes before disappearing off the map.

Two Syrian sources told Reuters there was a very high probability that Assad may have been killed in a plane crash as it was a mystery why the aircraft took a surprise U-turn and disappeared off the map according to Flightradar data.

“It disappeared off the radar, possibly the transponder was switched off, but I believe the bigger probability is that the aircraft was taken down…” said one Syrian source.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in Damascus as crowds chanting “God is great” gathered to celebrate after their long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad fled the capital.

“My feelings are indescribable,” said Omar Daher, a 29-year-old lawyer. “After the fear that he (Assad) and his father made us live in for many years, and the panic and state of terror that I was living in, I can’t believe it.”

“Damn his soul and the soul of the entire Assad family,” said another reveller. “It is the prayer of every oppressed person and God answered it today. We thought we would never see it, but thank God, we saw it.”

Soldiers and policemen abandoned their posts, discarding their uniforms as they fled.