Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus, transfer of power begins

Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, Bashar al-Assad’s prime minister since September 2024, has published a video in which he says that he is staying in Syria so he can help in the transition of power.

Al-Jalali, who had previously served as the Minister of Communications and Technology and is an assistant professor at the University of Damascus, emphasised the preservation of state institutions in his video.

Shortly after the video was published, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani issued a statement telling his forces that it was “strictly forbidden to approach public institutions, which will remain under the supervision of the former Prime Minister until they are officially handed over.”

The statement also banned celebratory gunfire.

A Telegram message from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Administration for Military Operations has announced that: “We declare Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad”.

Reuters is also reporting that Syrian army command is informing officers that that Assad government has fallen as videos are widely being circulated online of people celebrating the arrival of rebel forces in the Syrian capital.

There is still a lot of confusion and uncertainty in Syria, but it does appear that, after 54 years and hundreds of thousands of lost lives, the brutal Assad dynasty has ended.

A passenger jet that left Damascus airport as rebels entered the city and then disappeared from radar shortly after flying over the recently occupied city of Homs has sparked speculation about the flight’s passengers and fate.

Syrian Arab Airlines 9218 left Damascus just after 5am local time and is now speculated as carrying fleeing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

It is not known whether Assad was on the jet.

Flight data shows that the jet travelled north, over Homs before turning sharply south and then making a rapid descent.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad boarded a plane and left Damascus for an unknown destination when Rebels entered the city. according to two senior Syrian army officers speaking to Reuters.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad boarded a plane and left to an unknown destination, two senior army officers familiar with the incident had told Reuters.

Meanwhile Syrian insurgents say they have entered Damascus as residents of the capital reported sounds of gunfire.

There was no immediate official statement from the Syrian government on either development.

Multiple videos are circulating online showing prisoners streaming out of the notorious Sednaya Prison, just outside of Damascus, where the gates appear to be have been opened.

Human rights organisations has long identified Sednaya Prison as a site of grave abuses, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimating that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.

Amnesty International also estimated “that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015.”

The liberation of the prison will holds great symbolic value for the hundreds of thousands of Syrians whose loved ones have been held there.

Wires services are reporting that Israeli airstrikes have hit a convoy of armoured vehicles carrying Hezbollah fighters leaving Al-Qusayr, north of Damascus.

They are also reporting that rebel forces have taken the town, which is known as an important staging area for Hezbollah fighters supporting the government of Bashar al-Assad.

More to come.

Key Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, has issued a statement on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

The statement vehemently affirms that the group has no intention or desire to use chemical weapons, and that they see their use as a crime against humanity.

This statement comes after fears were voiced that Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weaponry stockpiles might fall into the hands of rebel groups with jihadi backgrounds.

The statement says regime military sites will be secured and treated with the utmost caution.

Furthermore the statement says that HTS will not allow illicit weaponry to fall into the hands of ‘bad actors.’

This may be a reference to Islamic State forces that are still operating in Syria.

The statement makes reference to the numerous times the Assad regime has used chemical weapons during the Syrian Civil War.

The statement also says HTS will cooperate with the international community if and when they discover Assad’s chemical weaponry.

Satellite imagery taken of Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base in Syria shows multiple air lifters at the base, potentially there for an emergency evacuation.

The image shows three Ilyushin Il-76 air lift planes and one Antonov An-124 Ruslan at the base, as well as one Antonov An-72 which is usually forward based in Syria.

The image, from Planet Labs Incorporated, also shows a Sukov Su-24 tactical bomber on the runway.

The Russian Federation signed a 49-year-lease with President Assad for control of Khmeimim Air Base, as well as a sprawling naval facility nearby, in 2017 after Russian forces backed Assad during the Syrian Civil War.

The fall of Homs to rebel forces means both bases are cut off from Damascus.

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After announcing that Homs is completely in rebel control, jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and other rebel groups are now in a position to strike Damascus.

Homs was a key transit point between two provinces loyal to Assad and where key Russian bases are, and the capital city of Damascus.

With Homs lost and the Syrian army withdrawing from much of southern part of the country, Damascus is isolated and vulnerable.

Rebel forces have announced that they have already started probing the outer suburbs of the capital.

It is the first time that opposition forces reached the outskirts of Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured the area following a years-long siege.

In Damascus, people rushed to stock up on supplies. Thousands went to Syria’s border with Lebanon, trying to leave the country.

Many shops in the capital were shuttered, a resident told The Associated Press, and those still open ran out of staples such as sugar. Some were selling items at three times the normal price.

“The situation is very strange. We are not used to that,” the resident said, insisting on anonymity, fearing retributions.

“People are worried whether there will be a battle (in Damascus) or not.”

The U.N. said it was moving noncritical staff outside the country as a precaution.

The U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, on Saturday called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.”

Speaking to reporters at the annual Doha Forum in Qatar, he said the situation in Syria was changing by the minute.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose country is Assad’s chief international backer, said he feels “sorry for the Syrian people.”