Rebel fighters claimed to have captured the Syrian capital Damascus early Sunday, as government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were routed within days.
The rebel claims open a new chapter in a 13-year civil war that has devastated the ancient land.
“We declare the city of Damascus liberated from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” Hassan Abdulghani, a senior commander of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, said in a WhatsApp post. mentioned in. “To all the displaced people of the world, a free Syria awaits you.”
NBC News has not independently confirmed the rebel claims.
Assad’s whereabouts were not immediately known. Media reports said he had left Damascus, and Abdulghani said Assad had fled. NBC News has not confirmed his departure or whereabouts.
Amid reports that Assad had left the capital, Syrian Prime Minister Ghazi al-Jalali said that Assad was at home and was working to “ensure the continued functioning of public institutions and state facilities and promote safety and security.” “I have no intention of leaving other than in a peaceful way.” It gives our compatriots a sense of security. ”
He said the government was ready to work with “any leader chosen by the Syrian people.”
The HTS General Command said it had also released people detained at Sednaya Prison. According to Reuters, the Syrian government has detained thousands of people in a military prison on the outskirts of Damascus.
“We announce to the Syrian people the news of the release of the prisoners and the breaking of their chains, and declare the end of the era of repression in Sednaya Prison.”
Syrian state radio Sham FM reported that Damascus International Airport had been evacuated, all employees evacuated and all flights grounded. It was not clear on Sunday who was in charge of the state government.
Overseas reaction
White House National Security Council Press Secretary Sean Savet said in a statement Saturday night that President Joe Biden is “monitoring the extraordinary situation in Syria and remains in constant communication with our regional partners.”
On Saturday morning, President-elect Donald Trump said in all caps in a post on his platform Truth Social that the United States should have “nothing to do” with the situation in Syria. “This is not our fight. Let us play it out.”
In a post on X, the Israel Defense Forces said it had deployed troops to the buffer zone and other locations between Israel and Syria “to ensure the safety of the Golan Heights and the Israeli people.” “We emphasize that the IDF does not interfere in events inside Syria.”
armed group offensive
Damascus fell on Friday, shortly after rebels besieged the Syrian city of Homs in a swift offensive against government forces. This leaves three of the country’s five largest cities in their hands and nothing to stop them from marching on the Syrian capital. HTS rebels claimed to have captured the city on Saturday Eastern time, and the following day also claimed the city of Daraa.
The United States has about 900 troops stationed in northern Syria and is closely monitoring developments in the country.
In less than two weeks, HTS rebels were able to capture the northern city of Aleppo and the central city of Hama, from which government forces withdrew on Thursday.
The HTS attack on Aleppo was the first rebel attack on Aleppo since 2016, when a brutal air campaign by Russian warplanes helped Assad retake control of Aleppo.
The sudden takeover of the capital by HTS militants is seen as a blow to the outside forces that have allowed Assad to cling to power for 24 years: Russia, Iran, and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
HTS’ rapid advance comes as the Middle East is rife with new fighting, with US-backed Israel seeking to root out Hamas in the Gaza Strip and maintain a fragile ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah. . Both Hamas and Hezbollah are allies of Iran.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that pro-Assad fighters were fighting Kurdish forces that had captured government strongholds near the cities of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria.
Origin of HTS
HTS is an offshoot of Jabhat al-Nusra, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, and is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations.
It is one of several competing factions in Syria fighting to topple the Assad regime, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians since the civil war began nearly 14 years ago.
A ceasefire in 2020 allowed the Assad regime to control 70% of Syria, but some 6.8 million Syrians fled the country.
Many have gone to Europe, but the sudden influx of Syrian refugees has revived anti-immigrant far-right movements from Portugal to Poland.
HTS’s latest battlefield success is the culmination of a four-year effort to transform the rebels into a force capable of challenging Assad’s forces and equipping them with drones and other high-tech weapons, experts said. are.
“The expansion of forces…combined with large-scale indigenous rocket and missile production has created a force that the Assad regime will seriously struggle to defend, let alone defeat,” said Charles Lister, head of Syria’s Middle East program. Ta. The East Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said in a post about X.
