Damascenes awoke on Sunday to find the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria, marking an end to over a half-century of governing by a ruler with that surname.
Opposition forces arrived shortly before dawn in Umayyad Square, the city center. After a steady trickle in the early hours, a flood of supporters emerged, celebrating and vandalizing symbols of the Assad regime. Dozens of videos showed Assad posters being defaced, statues toppled, and government buildings raided.
A video taken at dawn showed a sea of Damascenes celebrating in the streets.
Celebratory gunfire was a common sight and sound, with many of the instances reportedly taken off of the ground by defecting Syrian Arab Army soldiers. Several injuries were reported as a result of the shooting.
Videos captured citizens robbing the Syrian Central Bank, carrying out bags of cash. Large crowds stormed the abandoned presidential palace, smashing portraits of the Assads and looting valuables.
They also raided Assad’s private residence.
Arson was commonplace — opposition fighters were pictured burning down a military court in the capital.
Not all were so happy. The Associated Press reported thousands of Syrians fleeing to the Lebanese border, trying to escape the country amid the rebel advance. Chaotic scenes unfolded at Damascus International Airport after airport staff disappeared and flights were suddenly listed as canceled. Syrians trying to flee the country were seen running around the terminal in a panic.
The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that many military and security officials fled the country via the airport soon before it was captured by the rebels.
Syrian State Television, taken over by opposition forces, displayed an image emblazoned with a large message, “The victory of the great Syrian revolution and the overthrow of the Assad regime.”
A group of rebels appeared on state television to announce the overthrow of Assad, adding that they had released all the prisoners from government prisons. During a panel discussion, the moment of their arrival was captured on state TV.
Among the targets of the anti-Assad mobs was the Iranian embassy. Videos showed citizens tearing down a large poster of the assassinated former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps leader Qassem Soleimani and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. It was evacuated ahead of the rebel advance.
The government began a peaceful transition on Sunday, with Assad’s Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali announcing in a video statement that he hadn’t left the country and expressed willingness to “cooperate” with the rebel leadership. He was seen on video being guided by opposition fighters to negotiate the transfer of power. Hayat Tahrir al Sham directed its fighters not to attack government buildings while the transition was underway.
Syrian government bodies quickly reflected the change.
“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,” a statement from the country’s new foreign ministry said, adding that it would continue to work with foreign governments.
As of Sunday morning Eastern time, Assad’s whereabouts remain unknown. He has reportedly left the country. Social media users tracking Assad’s alleged plane noted that it disappeared from flight radar near the city of Homs. Two Syrian security sources told Reuters that there’s a “very high probability” he died in a plane crash.
The Russian foreign ministry made no indication that he was dead or missing in its first statement following the fall of Damascus.
“As a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the [Syrian Arab Republic], he decided to leave the presidential post and left the country, giving instructions to transfer power peacefully,” it read.
Assad’s fall was also notable as he was the last remaining Ba’athist head of state, an ideology espousing the creation of a socialist pan-Arab state. It was previously one of the most prominent intellectual movements in the Arab world. His father, Hafez al-Assad, ruled the country starting in 1971 until he died and his son soon after took over.
The dramatic collapse of the Assad government happened over the course of just 12 days after HTS launched a surprise offensive on Nov. 27 out of Idlib. The Syrian Civil War had previously been stagnant for over four years, after a Russian-Turkish brokered ceasefire in March 2020. Assad was widely seen as having won the civil war, with regional actors bringing the former pariah back into the fold.
The HTS-led offensive fully routed the SAA, setting off a string of routes of government forces. Assad’s two primary allies that had bailed him out before, Russia and Iran, were distracted by conflicts with Ukraine and Israel, respectively. The government’s collapse happened too quickly for either to send sufficient aid.
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The end of the Assad regime marks an uncertain new era for both Syria and the Middle East. While every major opposition faction celebrated its fall, Syria now finds itself ruled by over half a dozen major factions with irreconcilable goals. HTS, an outgrowth of Al Qaeda recognized as a terrorist group by the United States, is unlikely to win much-needed international support. Clashes between the Kurds and Turkey’s proxies in the north have already been reported.
With the loss of the only thing uniting the disparate factions, Syria may not see peace for long.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
