Syria’s authorities seems to have fallen after opposition fighters mentioned they’d entered Damascus following a surprising advance and a Syrian opposition warfare monitor reported that President Bashar Assad had left the nation.
The monitor, Rami Abdurrahman, mentioned Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early on Sunday (native time).
There was no speedy official assertion from the Syrian authorities.
It was the primary time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a yearslong siege.
The evening earlier than, opposition forces had taken the central metropolis of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as authorities forces deserted it.
The quickly creating occasions have shaken the area.
Lebanon mentioned it was closing all its land border crossings with Syria apart from one which hyperlinks Beirut with Damascus. Jordan closed a border crossing with Syria, too.
Eight key international locations gathered with the UN particular envoy on Syria on the sidelines of the Doha Summit for 2 hours of discussions on Saturday evening, and extra will comply with.
The UN envoy seeks pressing talks in Geneva to make sure an “orderly political transition.”
Crowds of Syrians have gathered to rejoice within the central squares of Damascus, chanting anti-Assad slogans and honking automobile horns.
In some areas, celebratory gunshots rang out.
“My emotions are indescribable,” mentioned Omar Daher, a 29-year-old lawyer. “After the worry that he (Assad) and his father made us reside in for a few years, and the panic and state of terror that I used to be residing in, I can not consider it.”
Daher mentioned his father had been killed by safety forces and his brother was in detention, his destiny unknown. Assad “is a prison, a tyrant and a canine,” he mentioned.
“Rattling his soul and the soul of your complete Assad household,” mentioned Ghazal al-Sharif, one other reveller in central Damascus.
“It’s the prayer of each oppressed particular person and God answered it as we speak.
The chief of the most important rebel group in Syria has prohibited his fighters from getting near state establishments saying they are going to stay underneath the supervision of the nation’s prime minister this present day.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, chief of the jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, additionally banned his fighters from opening hearth within the air within the capital Damascus.
“Public establishments will stay underneath the supervision of the prime minister till they’re formally handed over,” he mentioned in an announcement printed on his group’s social media retailers.
Al-Golani’s feedback got here as Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali mentioned he’s extending his hand to the opposition including that he desires to ensure that state establishments perform.
