Syrian rebels who have launched a fight against the government of President Bashar al-Assad have claimed the capital of Damascus in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Residents of the capital have reported sounds of gunfire as the insurgents swarmed the streets.
On Saturday evening, forces also took the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it.
Homs stands at an important intersection between Damascus and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus – the base of the Syrian leader’s support and home to a Russian strategic naval base.
Assad’s office said earlier on Saturday that Bashar al-Assad would remain in the capital and continue his duties, but the president has since fled into exile, ending his regime, the MailOnline reported.
In an offensive that began just under two weeks ago on November 27, the rebels have already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama, as well as large parts of the south.
A Syrian Air took off from Damascus Airport around the same time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, according to data from Flightradar. The aircraft initially appeared to head for the Syrian coast, 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.
While it remains unclear who was on the flight, two senior army officers told Reuters that Bashar al-Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday.
Syria’s army command has since notified officers that al-Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule has ended.
CNN has reported that there is an active search underway for the President, with rebels questioning his military and intelligence officials. Sources revealed that they are trying to pinpoint his movements.
The rebels said in a statement on their Telegram channel that hundreds of Assad forces have given themselves up to rebels in Deir al-Zour, a city in eastern Syria.
In a statement, they also announced they had liberated prisoners from the notorious Saydnaya Military Prison, dubbed the “industrial torture chamber”, which has reportedly seen between 5,000 and 13,000 inmates hanged since 2011, according to AlJazeera.
Amnesty International research said the Syrian authorities had committed crimes against humanity with thousands of inmates being murdered, tortured, and exterminated. They determined that the violations committed over the last decade under dictator’s Bashar al Assad regime, which has seen over 10,000 political detainees vanish, was part of an attack against civilians.
Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali has said he does not plan on leaving his home in the capital to ensure that public institutions continue to run, adding that he was ready to cooperate with whoever Syrians choose to lead the nation, according to the New York Times.
“I urge all to think rationally and to think about the country. We extend our hand to the opposition who have extended their hand and asserted that they will not harm anyone who belongs to this country,” he said.
Angela Rayner has welcomed the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and called for a political resolution. The Deputy Prime Minister told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “The situation looks very serious and 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.”
She added: “The Foreign Secretary and obviously our Foreign Office are working. You’ll have heard last week, the Foreign Secretary was very clear about UK civilians leaving Syria.
“We’ve had a plan to ensure that people were evacuated ahead of what’s happened over the weekend and we continue to support our UK nationals.”
Ms Rayner later said President Bashar al-Assad “wasn’t exactly good to the Syrian people”, before adding: “Dictatorship and terrorism creates problems for the people of Syria, who have faced so much already and also destabilises the region.
“That’s why we have to have a political solution where the government is acting in the interests of the Syrian people.”
HTS, the group leading the rebel offensive in Syria, is a powerful Islamist organisation that has maintained de facto control of Idlib for several years. The group, led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani, solidified in 2017 as a gathering of various Islamist factions, but traces its roots to al-Qaeda.
It officially severed ties with al-Qaeda and created a civilian arm known as the “Salvation Government” through which it seeks to govern in Syria, insisting it has no ambition to expand beyond the nation’s borders.
Initial reports from civilians in Aleppo have appeared to suggest that HTS militants have treated inhabitants well after ousting Syrian government forces. However, there are suspicions that HTS’ jihadist origins remain and it is still designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), US, UK and the EU, among others.