Staff Reporter.
(Sky News) – The Syrian government has fallen after a lightning offensive by anti-regime forces across the country – ending President Bashar al Assad’s 24-year rule.
Assad has left office and the country after giving orders for there to be a peaceful transfer of power, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
It did not say where he was, but said Russia had not been involved in the talks surrounding his departure.
Moscow was in touch with all Syrian opposition groups, it said, and urged all sides to refrain from violence.
Russia’s military bases in Syria had been put on a state of high alert, but that there was no serious threat to them at the current time, the ministry added.
Assad’s whereabouts now – and those of his wife Asma and their two children – remain unknown.
Tehran – another of Assad’s allies – said it would continue to closely monitor developments in Syria and the region.
The fate of the country lies in the hands of the Syrian people and should be pursued without foreign imposition or destructive intervention, Iran’s foreign ministry said.
Syrian rebels, made up of various opposition groups, said they were working to transition power to a new governing body.
“The great Syrian revolution has moved from the stage of struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria together that befits the sacrifices of its people,” the coalition said in a statement, describing events as a new birth for “great Syria”.
A curfew was announced starting from 4pm (1pm UK time) until 5am.
Syria’s prime minister, who remains in the country, said he was ready to cooperate and offered a peaceful transition.
“I am here in my home,” Mohammad Ghazi al Jalali said. “I have not left it and do not intend to leave, except in a peaceful manner that ensures the continued functioning of public institutions and state facilities, promoting security and reassurance for our fellow citizens.”
Thousands celebrating in the streets
Thousands of Syrians, in cars and on foot, have congregated at a main square in Damascus chanting for freedom.
Saturday’s advances on the capital marked the first time the rebels reached the outskirts of the city since 2018, when government forces recaptured the area after a years-long siege.
In the key city of Homs – which rebel fighters seized after just a day of fighting – thousands more filled the streets after the army withdrew, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free”, and “Long live Syria and down with Bashar al Assad”.
The rebels have also claimed Deir el Zor in the east, and Suweida, Quneitra and Deraa in the south.
Mr Assad and his forces had faced a battle on three fronts – Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) from the north, the Southern Front, and a Kurdish group in the east.
Abu Mohammed al Jolani led the stunning insurgency that toppled Mr Assad.
The HTS leader declared “the future is ours”, in a statement read out on Syrian state TV.
He said there was “no room for turning back” and his group was “determined” to continue on the path it started in 2011.
Footage circulating on social media showed families ransacking presidential palaces in Damascus.
Soldiers were reported to have deserted their posts and changed into civilian clothes as the rebels closed in.
Mohammed Amer al Oulabi, 44, who works in the electricity sector, was one of many celebrating on the streets.
“From Idlib to Damascus, it only took them (the opposition forces) a few days, thank God. May God bless them, the heroic lions who made us proud,” he said.
The country’s international airport in Damascus has been abandoned and rebels said they had entered the notorious Saydnaya military prison north of the capital and freed inmates there.
Iran’s embassy was also stormed by Syrian rebels, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported.
In a sign of perhaps what was to come – protesters on Saturday brought down a statue of the president’s late father in a main square in a suburb a few miles from the centre of the capital.
Assad had relied on his main allies, Russia and Iran, to counter insurgencies during his decades in power.
But with Russia now busy with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Iran’s proxies Hezbollah and Hamas embroiled in a conflict with Israel, Syria’s army was left exposed.
The fall of Assad’s regime marks a turning point for Syria after 13 years of civil conflict.
Towns and cities have been reduced to rubble, hundreds of thousands of people have died, and millions have been forced abroad as refugees.