Rebels seize control of Syria; Assad reported to have fled the country

DOHA, Qatar —  Opposition rebels all but sealed their control of Syria on Sunday, storming the capital as army troops melted away, and President Bashar Assad was reported to have fled the country.

The insurgents’ sweep into power concludes an astonishing Turkish-backed offensive that saw them overturn a years-long stalemate to overrun major cities in less than two weeks.

Early Sunday, the rebel coalition, led by the group Hayat Tahrir al Sham, known as HTS, declared Damascus “free of the tyrant Bashar” and hailed the day as “the start of a new era for Syria.” Syrians alternated between expressions of panic and celebration.

Later in the morning, a group of bearded men in hoodies and puffy jackets appearing on Syrian state television issued a statement saying that the Syrian government had been overthrown and that all detainees held in prisons had been released.

Before dawn, bewildered residents drove near military installations around the capital, noting that no soldiers appeared to be manning the gates and that posts seemed abandoned. Unconfirmed reports emerged of soldiers casting away their uniforms and running off in civilian clothing.

One video surfaced of residents rushing to mosques to announce from minarets that “the dog Bashar has fallen.” Others showed rebel fighters gathering in squares and firing what appeared to be celebratory machine gun salvos into the air. Damascus residents reached via the Whatsapp messaging platform reported hearing sustained gunfire starting in the early morning and continuing for hours.

Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, the prime minister under Assad, issued a video statement on social media saying he would work with any “leadership chosen by the people,” and he urged citizens to safeguard public institutions and not engage in attacks.

“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” he said. He later appeared in a video escorted out of his home by gunmen.

The leader of HTS, Ahmed Sharaa, issued a statement early Sunday ordering rebel fighters entering the capital to preserve public institutions, saying that they would remain under the stewardship of the “former prime minister until they are officially handed over.”

During their advance on Damascus, opposition groups announced taking over a number of prisons and throwing their doors open to release longtime political detainees. That included Sednaya, a lockup north of the capital where rights groups said widespread killing and torture had occurred.

The fall of Assad ends a 50-year dynasty begun by his late father, Hafez, notorious for its brutal treatment of adversaries, a fearsome intelligence apparatus and a propaganda arm that claimed almost to the end that Assad remained in the country and the army was holding its positions even as the rebels were entering Damascus.

Al-Watan, a daily known for its pro-government stance, issued a statement on its Telegram channel essentially apologizing for its coverage and insisting that Syrian media personnel “were not to blame.”

“We only carried out the instructions and published the news they sent us,” the statement said.

“It quickly became clear now that it was false.”

The Syrian civil war began in 2011, when anti-government protests — as part of the Arab Spring uprisings — were brutally suppressed, triggering an armed insurgency that overran wide swaths of the country. Assad remained in power thanks to Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, allies that dispatched fighters and arms to bolster the Syrian president’s flagging troops. By 2019, his survival was seen as a fait accompli, even as his most recalcitrant enemies, including HTS, remained in control of territories in the north of the country.

But on Sept. 27, a coalition of rebels, backed with weapons and support from Turkey, began their advance. In recent weeks they swiftly overran Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city and economic powerhouse. Though Russia, Iran and Hezbollah indicated they would stand by Assad, the offensive came at a time when all three were distracted by other conflicts — Moscow in Ukraine and the latter two against Israel. The Syrian army, meanwhile, insisted it was redeploying outside the city and would fight to regain control of lost territory.

But it was not to be: Opposition forces quickly moved south to the city of Hama, and by Saturday evening had entered Homs, a strategic central city, without facing any resistance from the Syrian army. Hours later, they were in Damascus.

On Sunday morning, the insurgents said they were entering Dair Alzour, a major city in the country’s east. Last week, Syrian troops had abandoned their positions in the city and its environs for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia that helped defeat Islamic State and which maintained an uneasy working relationship with Assad’s government. Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has opposed the government in Ankara for years. Activists reported clashes were already underway between the SDF and Turkish-backed factions in the rebel coalition in SDF-controlled areas.

Assad’s fate remains unclear, amid a swirl of rumors claiming he was heading to the United Arab Emirates or Russia. But his ouster raises urgent questions for enemies and allies alike, especially Russia, which maintains an air base and its only warm-water port on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

Russia’s embassy in Egypt issued a statement condemning the rebels’ advance, saying Damascus “has been captured by terrorists who are backed by external forces led by the United States.”

“They stubbornly want to destroy the Syrian state and destabilize the entire Middle East, bringing more suffering to the Arabs,” the statement said.

Potentially the biggest beneficiary of Assad’s departure is Turkey, a longtime opposition backer that hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees and which controls swaths of its southern neighbor’s borderlands. In recent months, Turkish officials sought a detente with Assad, who refused to engage in discussions until Turkey withdraws from Syrian territory. Instead, Turkey backed the rebel coalition’s offensive, with weapons and intelligence support.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, at a news conference at the Doha Forum in Qatar, said that “the Syrian people can shape the future of their own country.”

“Today there is hope,” he said.

Fidan dismissed any chance of working with SDF.