Closing summary
Thanks for following our live coverage of the extraordinary events in Syria.
This blog is closing now but for our full coverage, please see here:
Our wrap up of events is below:
Below is a summary of the latest:
Syrian anti-government rebels declared they had ousted president Bashar al-Assad after seizing control of Damascus on Sunday, in an astonishing end to his family’s decades of autocratic rule after more than 13 years of civil war.
The ousted Syrian president is now in Russia, according to a Kremlin source, where he has been granted asylum on “humanitarian grounds”.
The United Nations security council will convene on Monday afternoon for an emergency closed door meeting on Syria in the aftermath of the ousted president fleeing the country.
Thousands of Syrians have rallied across cities in Europe in the wake of the news, waving flags and barely able to contain their joy at Assad’s downfall. Similar celebrations have also been seen in Syrian embassies, including in Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
As armed rebels swept cities across Syria, they flung open detention facilities where rights groups estimated that at least 100,000 people were considered missing or forcibly disappeared since 2011 at the hands of the state. This included the Sednaya military prison, a facility notorious as the site of particularly brutal and humiliating methods of torture.
UN secretary-general António Guterres on Sunday praised the end of Syria’s “dictatorial regime” and called on the country to focus on rebuilding.
Joe Biden said the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but that it’s “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Middle East. The US Central Command said its forces conducted dozens of airstrikes on Islamic State targets in central Syria on Sunday.
The US president also said it believes missing American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared 12 years ago near the Syrian capital, is alive and “we think we can get him back”.
Rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said in a statement read on Syria’s state TV that there is no room for turning back. “The future is ours,” his statement said. Al-Jolani, commander of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), reportedly said that all state institutions will remain under the supervision of al-Assad’s prime minister until they are handed over officially.
The Israeli military has issued a warning to five towns in southern Syria, calling on residents to stay at home “until further notice” due to ongoing combat in the area.
Arab states will seek to avert the threat of a reignited Syrian civil war by starting an open dialogue with all the forces on the ground to ensure any transition is inclusive of all Syrians regardless of ethnicity, Qatar’s foreign ministry has said.
US believes journalist Austin Tice is alive
President Joe Biden says the US government believes missing American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared 12 years ago near the Syrian capital, is alive and Washington is committed to bringing him home after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, reports the Associated Press.
Biden said Sunday that “we think we can get him back”.
Tice disappeared in August 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus. A video released weeks later showed him blindfolded and held by armed men. He’s not been heard from since. Syria has denied it was holding him.
Updated
The reaction from Asia to Assad's fall
We’ve seen reactions from across the Middle East And Europe, but there is a celebratory mood in Asia too.
At the Syrian embassy in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, the news of Assad’s fall was met with dancing, drumming, and baklava on the embassy grounds.
A message posted on the Syrian embassy’s website hailed a “new page in the history of Syria, to establish a covenant and a national treaty that unites the word Syrians, unites them and does not divide them”.
More here from the embassy’s Instagram page:
Updated
Assad's palace - in pictures
The state of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s residential palace in Damascus, a symbol of his fall.
Parts of the palace in ruins.
Residents taking to armchairs on the palace grounds.
An aerial view of Tishrin palace.
Ransacking the remains.
Palace selfies.
Updated
Ousted president Assad granted asylum on "humanitarian grounds"
Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow with his family after Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.
Syrian President Assad of Syria and members of his family have arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds,” the privately-owned Interfax news agency and state media quoted the unnamed Kremlin source as saying.
United Nations security council to hold emergency Syria meeting
The United Nations security council will convene on Monday afternoon for an emergency closed door meeting regarding Syria in the aftermath of ousted president Bashar al-Assad fleeing the country, multiple diplomatic sources told Agence France Presse on Sunday.
A dispatch from Damascus
The Guardian’s William Christou is in Damascus and has filed this wrap up of the astonishing fall of the Assad regime together with our Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan.
“The major road linking the Lebanese city of Beirut to Damascus was lined with discarded army uniforms on Sunday after Syrian army soldiers discarded them upon realising their leader had abandoned them after 54 years of his family’s rule over Syria.”
Read the full story here:
Interim summary
Syrian anti-government rebels declared they had ousted Assad after seizing control of Damascus on Sunday, ending his family’s decades of autocratic rule after more than 13 years of civil war.
The ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is in Russia, according to a Kremlin source. TASS, Russia’s state-owned news agency, said: “Russian officials are in contact with representatives of the armed Syrian opposition, whose leaders have guaranteed the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions on the territory of Syria.”
Thousands of Syrians rallied across cities in Europe on Sunday, waving flags and barely able to contain their joy at the downfall of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
As armed rebels swept cities across Syria, they flung open detention facilities where rights groups estimated that at least 100,000 people were considered missing or forcibly disappeared since 2011 at the hands of the state. This included the Sednaya military prison, a facility notorious as the site of particularly brutal and humiliating methods of torture.
UN secretary-general António Guterres on Sunday praised the end of Syria’s “dictatorial regime” and called on the country to focus on rebuilding after Bashar al-Assad’s sudden downfall.
Joe Biden said the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but that it’s “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Middle East. The US Central Command said its forces conducted dozens of airstrikes on Islamic State targets in central Syria on Sunday.
Rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said in a statement read on Syria’s state TV that there is no room for turning back. “The future is ours,” his statement said. Al-Jolani, commander of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), reportedly said that all state institutions will remain under the supervision of al-Assad’s prime minister until they are handed over officially.
The Israeli military has issued a warning to five towns in southern Syria, calling on residents to stay at home “until further notice” due to ongoing combat in the area.
Arab states will seek to avert the threat of a reignited Syrian civil war by starting an open dialogue with all the forces on the ground to ensure any transition is inclusive of all Syrians regardless of ethnicity, Qatar’s foreign ministry has said.
In Europe, Spain’s foreign ministry has urged for there to be an “inclusive political transition” in Syria after the fall of the Assad government, while European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would help to rebuild a Syria that safeguards minorities after the dramatic fall of Bashar al-Assad.
A curfew has been declared in Damascus, where people were celebrating in the streets, from 4pm (13.00 GMT) until 5am (02.00 GMT).
Updated
Who are the Syrian rebels who have captured Damascus – explained in 30 seconds
The rebels who have swept through Syria are led by Islamist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army.
Both have been entrenched in the north-west. They launched the shock offensive on 27 November with gunmen capturing Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the central city of Hama, the fourth largest.
The founder of HTS, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, was once a participant in the Iraqi insurgency against the US as a member of the group that eventually became Islamic State.
In its former incarnation as Jabhat al-Nusra or the Al-Nusra front, HTS later declared allegiance to al-Qaida. It eventually publicly broke those ties in 2016 and rebranded as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or Organization for the Liberation of the Levant.
HTS is now the most powerful rebel faction in Syria.
It is designated as a terrorist group by the US and there are serious human rights concerns in the area it controls, including executions for those accused of affiliation with rival groups and over allegations of blasphemy and adultery.
The HTS and Syrian National Army have been allies at times and rivals at times, and their aims might diverge.
The Turkish-backed militias also have an interest in creating a buffer zone near the Turkish border to keep away Kurdish militants at odds with Ankara. Turkey has been a main backer of the fighters seeking to overthrow Assad but more recently has urged reconciliation, and Turkish officials have strongly rejected claims of any involvement in the current offensive.
Updated
Israel notified the US in advance about its operation to take control of the buffer zone on the border with Syria and several other locations on the Syrian side of the border, Axios’s Barak Ravid reports.
Barak said that, according to Israeli and US officials, Israel informed the Biden administration that this is a temporary move that will last a few days to a few weeks.
Updated
Thousands of Syrians rallied in Berlin, Germany, and cities across Europe on Sunday, waving flags and barely able to contain their joy at the downfall of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
Berlin police said more than 5,000 Syrians gathered in a square in the Kreuzberg district, Agence France-Presse reports.
Many waved flags and banners that read “Free Syria” and “Freedom”, flashed “V” for victory signs and chanted “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Greatest!).
Despite a cold drizzle, many came with their families. Children’s faces were painted in the Syrian colours. Passing cars honked their horns.
Here are some images coming in from the wires:
Updated
The UN’s International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism released a report on Friday analyzing the widespread torture, ill treatment and related violations in more than 100 government detention facilities in Syria.
The report describes systematic abuse, including physical and psychological torture, sexual violence, overcrowding and denial of medical care based on over 300 witness interviews, forensic evidence and government records.
The report also underscores the role of government leadership, intelligence branches, military hospitals and military police in the abuse.
The report came days before the fall of Bashar al-Assad, which has led to scores of prisoners being released from detention centers across the country.
Charles Lister, director of the Middle East Institute Syria Program, posted a video on X showing Syrians being released from Saydnaya prison:
Syrians are still being broken out of #Assad’s infamous #Saydnaya prison — as each layer underground is being accessed with time.
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) December 8, 2024
Extraordinary scenes. pic.twitter.com/6g35z9nUGO
Updated
Israel launched strikes on weapons depots in Syria’s east on Sunday, according to the UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, after rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government earlier Sunday.
“Israel has conducted air strikes on weapon depots and positions that belonged to the defunct regime and Iran-backed groups in the eastern Deir Ezzor province,” Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence France-Presse.
He reported “increased Israeli strikes” on such targets since Bashar al-Assad fled the country as rebels seized the capital.
Updated
Tears of joy and sadness as ‘disappeared’ Syrians emerge from Assad’s prisons
Bethan McKernan is the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent.
As Syrian rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured city after city on the road to Damascus, forcing Bashar al-Assad to flee the country, they also opened the doors of the regime’s notorious prisons, into which upwards of 100,000 people disappeared during nearly 14 years of civil war.
Many emerged frail and emancipated into the bright December sunlight, greeted by weeping family members who had no idea they were still alive. Some struggled to comprehend that Assad was gone; a few held even longer had never even been told that he had succeeded his father, Hafez, who died in 2000.
Verified videos from Damascus showed dozens of women and small children being held in cells, the rebels opening the doors telling them not to be afraid.
The prisons infamous for torture in and around Damascus itself – including Sednaya, the most notorious, where satellite imagery showed a new crematorium was built in 2017 to dispose of bodies – were broken open early on Sunday. There are conflicting reports of underground cell blocks yet to be reached.
The photos and videos of reunited families are bittersweet. The stories of the prisoners are astonishing; they will take years to be told in full, further grim evidence of the crimes the Assad family committed against so many of their own people.
Al-Arabiya broadcast footage of a family arriving in Damascus to meet their released son, the elderly mother’s voice breaking with emotion as she embraced him for the first time in 14 years.
Raghad al-Tatary, a pilot who refused to bomb the city of Hama during the uprising against Hafez al-Assad in the 1980s, was freed after 43 years; Tal al-Mallouhi, 19 when she was arrested in 2009 for a blogpost criticising state corruption, was found alive.
One shaven-headed, shaking man in Sednaya had been so ill-treated he had lost his memory and struggled to talk. His family said he had been 20 and a medical student when he vanished 13 years ago.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Several Syrian embassies have updated their social media profile photos following al-Assad’s fall to the black, green and white flag with three stars used by anti-Assad activists and rebel forces.
Embassies in Cairo, Egypt, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Jakarta, Indonesia, are among some of the Syrian offices that have changed their official social media profile pictures to the flag.
Updated
Monitor says Israel hit Syrian countryside, killed young man
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, has reported that the Al-Qunaitrah countryside has witnessed a surge in Israeli military activity, with several Israeli tanks and armored vehicles advancing to the Al-Ruqad Bridge.
SOHR also reported that Israeli forces also moved within 100 meters of civilian homes in Al-Hamidyah village in northern Al-Qunaitrah. They opened the area’s gate and carried out intense fire-sweeping operations.
Tensions escalated further when Israeli forces shot and killed a young man from the town of Jabatha Al-Khashab in northern Al-Qunaitrah, according to the report.
Updated
The US Central Command said its forces conducted dozens of airstrikes on Islamic State targets in central Syria on Sunday
In a statement, the Centcom said its strikes were aimed to ensure that the Islamic State does not take advantage of the current situation in Syria.
“Battle damage assessments are underway, and there are no indications of civilian casualties,” reads a statement by Centcom posted on X.
“There should be no doubt – we will not allow Isis to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria,” said Gen Michael Erik Kurilla.
“All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support Isis in any way,” Kurilla added.
Updated
Here’s how Syrians living in the cities of Athens, London, and Copenhagen in Europe celebrated on Sunday the fall of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad.
Updated
Joe Biden was asked about Austin Tice, the American journalist missing in Syria, to which he replied: “We believe he is alive. We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet.”
When asked about a potential rescue operation to retrieve Tice, the president said the US must first “identify where he is”.
Tice, who is from Houston and whose work had been published by the Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and other outlets, disappeared in August 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus.
A video released weeks later showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying: “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since.
On Friday, his family said they had a new source who told them Tice is alive and has been treated well. US officials reached out to Syrian opposition forces about Tice hoping to learn more about his whereabouts, according to CNN.
Updated
Following the collapse of the Assad regime on Sunday, after opposition rebels seized control of Damascus, scores of people imprisoned under the regime were freed.
Social media platforms have been flooded with videos showing prisoners being released from detention centers across the country.
Here are a few clips posted on Twitter/X by Maher Akraa, now in Switzerland, who reported from rebel-held territory earlier in the war for a media collective led by the influential media activist Rami Jarrah.
Akraa said: “The lower underground cells of Saydnaya Prison, infamously known as the ‘human slaughterhouse’, remain sealed after the fallen regime disabled electronic gates and ventilation systems. These cells are referred to as the ‘red ward’ or ‘death ward’.”
Efforts continue at #Saydnaya Prison, known as the "human slaughterhouse" and a symbol of tyranny in Syria, to reach detainees held in underground cells. pic.twitter.com/8Cwg6PlvmC
— Maher Akraa (@maherakraa) December 8, 2024
Search efforts are ongoing in #Saydnaya Prison, the notorious "human slaughterhouse," to locate detainees. The prison is massive, requiring access to its blueprints to navigate the complex underground levels. pic.twitter.com/IusEA7E6uB
— Maher Akraa (@maherakraa) December 8, 2024
Updated
The Syrian flag was removed on Sunday from a pole outside the country’s embassy in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported.
The flag had been hoisted outside the embassy earlier in the day, TASS reported.
The news agency also quoted embassy staff as saying the embassy would operate as normal on Monday. It said the embassy provided no explanation for the absence of the flag.
Joe Biden delivers remarks on the latest developments in Syria
The US president said on Sunday:
We now see new opportunities opening up for the people of Syria and for the entire region …
We’ll support Syria’s neighbors, including Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel. Should any threat arise from Syria during this period of transition, I will speak with leaders of the region in the coming days.
Biden pledged to ensure stability in eastern Syria and protect US personnel.
“Isis will try to take advantage of any vacuum to re-establish its capability and to create a safe haven,” Biden said.
“This is the best opportunity in generations for Syrians to forge their own future, free of opposition,” he added.
Updated
Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said the overthrowing of al-Assad in Syria is proof that Russia and its allies can be defeated.
“The events in Syria have made the world realise once again, or at least they should, that even the most cruel regime may fall and that Russia and its allies can be defeated,” Tusk said in a post on X.
Updated
Here’s how Syrians in cities across the world celebrated the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
People cheered, danced with flags and beeped car horns after the Syrian government was ousted in an end to the Assad family’s 50-year rule.
TASS, Russia’s state-owned news agency, said:
“Russian officials are in contact with representatives of the armed Syrian opposition, whose leaders have guaranteed the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions on the territory of Syria.”
Here’s the full statement in Russian.
Updated
Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, just gave another statement before the cameras.
Most of it overlapped with the earlier written communique but this bit was new, NB: Germany has nearly one million Syrian nationals living on its soil, many of whom arrived during the 2015-16 refugee influx. It is the largest Syrian diaspora outside the Middle East:
“Today we stand by all Syrians who are full of hope for a free, just and safe Syria, whether they live in Syria itself or abroad. They have all followed the events over the last few days with the greatest suspense.
They fervently hope that there is now a chance to rebuild the country and embark on the long and difficult road to reconciliation. They wonder what will happen now. Because there are also radical and extremist forces among the resistance fighters.
What matters now is that Syria can quickly live in law and order -- law and order must be established there; that all religious communities, all ethnic groups and minorities enjoy protection; that a life in dignity and self-determination must be made possible -- that is how we will judge the next Syrian government.”
Deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow – reports
Reuters reports that ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is in Russia, according to a Kremlin source.
The Interfax news agency quoted the unnamed source as saying: “President Assad of Syria has arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them (him and his family) asylum on humanitarian grounds.”
Russia has requested a closed-door UN security council meeting on Monday to discuss the UN peacekeeping mission in the Golan Heights, according to diplomats.
Updated
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad underscores Russia’s weakness and inability to fight on two fronts, Reuters reports.
Russia had strengthened Assad’s government by staging air strikes against opposition targets since 2015 and had operated out of two bases on Syrian territory.
But Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has sapped considerable military resources.
“Events in Syria demonstrate the weakness of Putin’s regime, which is incapable of fighting on two fronts and abandons its closest allies for the sake of continued aggression against Ukraine,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Updated
UN chief hails end to 'dictatorial regime' in Syria
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday praised the end of Syria’s “dictatorial regime” and called on the country to focus on rebuilding in the wake of President Bashar al-Assad’s sudden downfall.
“After 14 years of brutal war and the fall of the dictatorial regime, today the people of Syria can seize an historic opportunity to build a stable and peaceful future,” Guterres said in a statement.
“I reiterate my call for calm and avoiding violence at this sensitive time, while protecting the rights of all Syrians, without distinction.”
Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria – but where is the former dictator now?
The fate and whereabouts of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad remained unclear on Sunday as his ally Russia, which had long sustained him in office, said he had resigned and departed the country.
“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 resign from the presidency and left the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. It added: “Russia did not participate in these negotiations.”
Assad had not been pictured since a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister in Damascus a week ago when he vowed to “crush” the rebels heading towards the city.
Islamist rebels declared they had ousted Assad after seizing control of the capital on Sunday, ending his family’s decades of autocratic rule after more than 13 years of civil war.
There were unconfirmed media reports that Assad had been visiting Moscow late last month when rebels reached Aleppo, before returning to Syria. The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter at the time and it is unclear whether Russia has offered him refuge now.
Amid questions over Assad’s whereabouts, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, Syria’s prime minister, told al-Arabia that he had not been able to speak with Assad since Saturday despite claims by state media on that day that Assad remained in Damascus in office.
Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s foreign minister, said on Sunday that he believed Assad was “probably outside of Syria”.
Attention had focused on a flight that left Damascus early on Sunday and disappeared from flight trackers outside Homs, but it was unclear who was on on board and whether it had landed.
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, had reported that a plane believed to be carrying Assad “left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left” the facility.
Rami Abdul Rahman of SOHR said he had information that the plane was meant to take off at 10pm on Saturday. Although there appears to have been no flight at that time, a Syrian Air Ilyushin Il-76T cargo plane did take off from the airport hours later with the Flightradar24 tracking site showing that it first flew east from the capital then north-west and losing altitude near the central city of Homs where the flight transponder signal was lost.
Other reports focused on a flight to Sharjah in the UAE that departed a little earlier but a diplomatic adviser to the Emirati president told reporters in Bahrain that he had no information that Assad was in the country.
Read the full analysis from senior international correspondent Peter Beaumont here:
From doctor to brutal dictator: the rise and fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad
Peter Beaumont is a senior international reporter for the Guardian.
On the face of it at least, the Bashar al-Assad of 2002 presented a starkly different figure to the brutal autocrat he would become, presiding over a fragile state founded on torture, imprisonment and industrial murder.
He had been president then for just two years, succeeding his father, Hafez, whose own name was a byword for brutality.
For a while the gawky former ophthalmologist, who had studied medicine in London and later married a British-Syrian wife, Asma, an investment banker at JP Morgan, was keen to show the world that Syria, under his leadership, could follow a different path.
Reaching out to the west, he pursued a public relations campaign to show the young Assad family as somehow ordinary despite the palaces and the ever visible apparatus of repression.
Visiting Damascus in that year ahead of Bashar’s state visit to the UK, arranged by then prime minister Tony Blair – the high point of that engagement – I was invited for a private coffee with Assad who sat on a white sofa in an expensively tailored suit.
Suggesting some uncertainty, he was curious about how Syria was seen in the world, floating possibilities for a change, including a reset in the relationship between Damascus and Israel.
It was a constructed iteration of the Assads – highlighting Asma’s much-vaunted “charitable” works and Bashar’s brief embrace by the west – that nodded to an ambition to transform Hafez’s Syria into something more like a version of Jordan’s paternalistic royal family. More manicured. Certainly more PR savvy. A dictatorship all the same.
In the midst of the conversation, however, Bashar proffered a chilling and almost throwaway line as he reflected on the previous year’s 9/11 attack on the US by al-Qaida and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan.
The world should know, Bashar insisted, that his father had been “right” all along in his brutal crushing of Islamist insurgents.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Saudi Arabia says it stands by Syrian people
Saudi Arabia says it is satisfied with the “positive steps” taken to guarantee the safety of the Syrian people and says it stands by the Syrian people and their choices at this “critical stage”, Reuters reports.
It called on the international community to stand by Syria without interfering in its internal affairs.
Updated
EU chief offers to help rebuild a Syria that protects minorities
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would help to rebuild a Syria that safeguards minorities after the dramatic fall of Bashar al-Assad.
“Europe is ready to support safeguarding national unity and rebuilding a Syrian state that protects all minorities,” she said in a statement on X.
“The cruel Assad dictatorship has collapsed. This historic change in the region offers opportunities but is not without risks,” added the commission president.
Updated
Amnesty International called on Sunday for perpetrators of rights violations in Syria to face justice after Bashar al-Assad’s fall from power, calling it a “historic opportunity” to end decades of abuses.
“Suspected perpetrators of crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations must be investigated, and if warranted, prosecuted for their crimes in fair trials,” Amnesty International head Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
Here’s how Syrians living in Turkey are reacting to the end of the Assad family’s 50 years of rule:
Updated
US president Joe Biden is expected to meet with his national security team on Sunday to receive an update on the situation in Syria, a White House spokesperson said in a post on X.
The US has about 900 troops in Syria, including US forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group.
Updated
Statues of the deposed Assad family dynasty have been toppled around Syria as the government collapses, as this video report shows:
Updated
'I feel as if I am in a dream,' Syrians react to rapid fall of Assad government
The road to Damascus was lined with discarded army uniforms. In a panic, Syrian army soldiers stripped down in the streets in the early hours of Sunday morning, realising their leader, Bashar al-Assad, had abandoned them after 54 years of his family’s rule over Syria.
Syrian army tanks which were supposed to stop the lightning rebel offensive which started just 11 days earlier stood empty in front of checkpoints with posters of the late-leader Hafez al-Assad, his face half torn. Out of reflex, a driver stopped and rolled down the window, but there was no one at the checkpoint.
“No more checkpoints, no more bribes,” Mohammed remarked, smiling as he sped towards the Syrian capital city.
Damascus was still in a state of disbelief, smoke from battles the night before hung over the city like a fog. Windows shook from the occasional explosion, the target and the warring party unknown. Just hours before, it was announced that Bashar al-Assad had fled the capital and that his regime had fallen.
The head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Mohammed al-Julani, the most prominent of the rebel leaders in Syria, announced that the ex-Syrian prime minister Mohammed Gaza al-Jalali would lead a transitional government in the coming months.
Residents of Syria still were dazed by the day’s events. “I feel as if I am in a dream, I haven’t slept and I can’t absorbed what’s happened,” Fatimeh, a Syrian originally from Idlib, said as she approached Damascus. “I am from Idlib,” she said once more, saying for years she wouldn’t dare say where she was from when she was in Damsacus, for fear that any affiliation with the province held by Islamist rebels would provoke retaliation.
Al-Julani, who dropped his nom de guerre in favor of his birth name – Ahmad al-Shaara – was also chasing after rebel forces. It was fighters from the southern province of Daraa, not HTS, who reached the gates of Damascus. HTS fighters were preoccupied with securing Homs, Bashar al-Assad’s last lifeline to his coastal strongholds of Tartus and Latakia.
The rebel leader arrived to the iconic Omayyad mosque in the old city of Damascus in his first public appearance after the fall of the Assad government. Seeing the rebel leader in the mosque, located in the former heartland of the government, would have been unthinkable just a few days earlier. To Syrians, the message was clear: Bashar al-Assad was gone, and rebels were in control.
“I’m so excited for them [HTS] to arrive, they will stop the stealing. For years we haven’t been able to afford bread, things will be better now,” Mohammed said.
Others expressed some reservations about the Islamist group, wary of any revolutionary groups – particularly Islamist ones – after 13 years of bitter civil war. But caution, was delayed for another day, today was for celebration.
“The feelings, they’re indescribable. I am angry, I am happy and I am sad. But now that the regime has fallen, I can rest,” Mohammed Ahmad, a resident of Kafr Halab, in northern Syria, said.
Updated
The UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, has confirmed reports that Israeli airstrikes have targeted government security buildings in Damascus today.
“Israeli strikes targeted a security complex in Damascus near the former regime’s buildings” including intelligence, customs and a military headquarters, the war monitor said. There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the airstrikes.
Updated
Israel carries out airstrikes on major security complex in Damascus - report
Israel conducted three airstrikes against a major security complex in the Kafr Sousa district of Damascus, along with a research centre where it had previously said Iranian scientists developed missiles, two regional security sources have told Reuters. We have not yet been able to independently verify this claim.
Spain’s foreign ministry has urged for there to be an “inclusive political transition” in Syria after the fall of the Assad government.
In a statement, the ministry said:
We call on all parties in Syria, in the region, and in the international community, to ensure that the historical events the country is experiencing lead to a peaceful and inclusive political transition, according to the terms of UN security council resolution 2254, which guarantees the country’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We remain in permanent contact with the Spanish community in the country via the Spanish embassy in Damascus and are ready to respond to any eventuality.
Spain, along with UK, France and Germany, are among the western countries that have publicly welcomed the fall of the regime.
Syrian rebel leader seen in Damascus making a speech to cheering crowd - report
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that led the anti-government rebel offensive, has visited Damascus’ landmark Umayyad Mosque, a correspondent from Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
He has reportedly given a speech as the crowd chanted “Allahu akbar (God is greatest)”. Video footage circulating online shows al-Jolani entering the mosque, with crowds seen cheering him on.
Israeli military tells residents of five towns in southern Syria to stay home 'until further notice'
The Israeli military has issued a warning to five towns in southern Syria, calling on residents to stay at home “until further notice” due to ongoing combat in the area. The towns are: Ofaniya, Quneitra, al-Hamidiyah, western Samadanism and Qahtaini.
In a post on X, the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Arabic spokesperson, said:
The fighting inside your area is forcing the IDF to act and we do not intend to harm you. For your safety, you must stay at home and not go out until further notice.
Updated
In an earlier post, we reported that the UK’s deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, had welcomed the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and called for a political resolution.
Now the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has echoed her comments, saying he wants to help ensure peace is restored in Syria and hopes that a political solution “prevails” over violence. Starmer said:
The developments in Syria in recent hours and days are unprecedented, and we are speaking to our partners in the region and monitoring the situation closely.
The Syrian people have suffered under Assad’s barbaric regime for too long and we welcome his departure.
Our focus is now on ensuring a political solution prevails, and peace and stability is restored.
We call on all sides to protect civilians and minorities, and ensure essential aid can reach the most vulnerable in the coming hours and days.
Syrian rebels seize the capital: How the night unfolded – video
Here is a video report featuring the main events over the last day, during which time rebel forces claim they captured Damascus and ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
'The Arab spring is not yet over,' Syrian civil society president says
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor
“Today and tonight we celebrate, but tomorrow we roll up our sleeves and start to form our new inclusive Syria because we have so much work to do,” Hind Kabawat, the president of the women led Syrian civil society and former member of the Syrian Negotiation Council, vowed. “Tomorrow is the first day of our lives living in freedom but it is so important we keep the civic space in the weeks ahead”.
Speaking to the Guardian after a night anxiously awaiting events in Damascus, she said: “Syrian civil society on the ground was in a completely different place from 20 years ago – much stronger, vibrant and creative. At root there are three messages – no punishment, no revenge and no sectarianism”.
With my friend Hind Abawat who worked so hard to see change in Syria. There is no need for words to describe her happiness. pic.twitter.com/gxRgTPIU4a
— Amal Mudallali (@AmbMudallali) December 8, 2024
A veteran of negotiations in Geneva in 2015 and President of Tastakel, a non profit group committed to inter faith dialogue and operating inside Syria, she added:
We learnt from Iraq where they destroyed all the institutions. We need those Syrian institutions. We cannot punish the small soldiers that have no blood on their hands. We are not going to have people taken into the square. Those involved in crimes will have a fair trial.
She said for her the revolution’s turning point had come when the Christians in Aleppo realised the Islamic militia would not endanger them.
She explained:
When the Christian people in Aleppo woke up to discover there was no regime they feared what was coming next. The Christians had been told for so long by President Assad that he was their protector. I too was fearful. There have been so many disappointments, and people said to me ‘we have seen this movie before’.
But civil society went to the Christians on the day of Santa Barbara festival (December 4th ) and reassured them and distributed bread, so Aleppo was fine. We had been so scared about sectarianism, but it went so smoothly. We had videos and phone calls to our organisation saying all is fine.
And then the revolutionaries went to the Christian church in Hama and Homs saying we are not going to enter. They went to Marmorita, and said ‘we want you to be safe. All we are asking is you take the revolutionary green flag and we take a video and we will leave you alone’. So now the christian community is safe.
She said: “The international community abandoned us saying ‘let’s normalise with Assad’ but the Syrian people did not give up and we said ‘this is a Syrian led fight for our country and we will fight for our freedom alone if necessary’. Today there are layers. Yes there is the military, but they are together with civil society. This is Syria for all.”
She continued: “Civil society, especially the young people, know what they want and they will watch the military groups to make sure there is more civil space. The Arab Spring is not yet over.”
She said she had gone to the same school as President Bashir al-Assad and accused him of having the “ego of a dictator. He never listens and never wanted to listen. We thought one day he would be better, but he ended with 40,000 people in prison”.
Updated
Arab states will talk to all forces in Syria to prevent reignition of war, says Qatar
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor
Arab states will seek to avert the threat of a reignited Syrian civil war by starting an open dialogue with all the forces on the ground to ensure any transition is inclusive of all Syrians regardless of ethnicity, Qatar’s foreign ministry has said.
Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry spokesperson, spoke after the leaders of Arab states met again in Doha to assess the sudden overnight collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
He said Arab states were “thankful for the very limited fighting” that preceded the overthrowing of Assad, saying “it makes it easier for international actors to go in and start engaging before any fighting might erupt amongst the parties on the ground”.
He “was encouraged state institutions remain intact, policing, water and electricity remain intact. We are encouraged that the government institutions retain their functions,” he said, adding there was no need for bloodshed.
“No one group, no one party or sect should feel unsafe or excluded in the future of Syria,” he added.
“We should not be complacent about the situation on the ground. Everyone was clear about the need to have open dialogue and to engage all parties on the ground.”
But he admitted it was not clear who held the strongest military forces, or whether the Syrian regime had simply imploded. Either way, he said, the military forces needed to be orchestrated in the coming weeks to avoid fighting among them. He said that required dialogue between interested states and the military groups.
Hadi al-Bahra, president of the Syrian National Coalition, Syria’s main opposition abroad, has said the country should draft a constitution within six months, on which the first election would be a referendum.
“The constitution will say, are we going to have a parliamentary system, presidential system, or mixed system? And based on this, we do the election and the people choose their leader,” al-Bahra said.
He added that the opposition had asked state employees to continue to report to work until the power transition, and assured them that they would not be harmed.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
Russia said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had left office and departed his country after giving orders for a peaceful transfer of power, but did not say where he was now or whether the Russian military planned to stay in Syria.
Syrian anti-government rebels declared they had ousted Assad after seizing control of Damascus on Sunday, ending his family’s decades of autocratic rule after more than 13 years of civil war.
Rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said in a statement read on Syria’s state TV that there is no room for turning back. “The future is ours,” his statement said. Al-Jolani, commander of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), reportedly said that all state institutions will remain under the supervision of al-Assad’s prime minister until they are handed over officially.
The Israeli military has issued a warning to five towns in southern Syria, calling on residents to stay at home “until further notice” due to ongoing combat in the area.
Arab states will seek to avert the threat of a reignited Syrian civil war by starting an open dialogue with all the forces on the ground to ensure any transition is inclusive of all Syrians regardless of ethnicity, Qatar’s foreign ministry has said.
In Europe, Spain’s foreign ministry has urged for there to be an “inclusive political transition” in Syria after the fall of the Assad government, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would help to rebuild a Syria that safeguards minorities after the dramatic fall of Bashar al-Assad.
In the US, president Joe Biden is expected to meet with his national security team on Sunday to receive an update on the situation in Syria, a White House spokesperson said in a post on X.
The Lebanese army says it is reinforcing its presence on the border with neighbouring Syria after the dramatic fall of the Assad government.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the collapse of the Assad regime “offers great opportunity”, but warned that it is also “fraught with significant dangers”, adding that he will “take action against possible threats (to Israel)”.
A curfew has been declared in Damascus, where people are celebrating in the streets, from 4pm (13:00 GMT) until 5am (02:00 GMT).
The Pentagon has said the US will keep a presence in eastern Syria and take the appropriate steps to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.
US president-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Assad had “fled his country” after losing the backing of Russia. “Assad is gone,” he said on his Truth Social platform. “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer.”
Iraq has reportedly evacuated its embassy in Syria and moved staff to Lebanon, hours after rebels overthrew Assad and took control of the capital. Reasons behind the evacuation were not made public.
Footage shows the Damascus residence of Bashar al-Assad has been stormed and almost emptied by looters. There were reports earlier today that the Iranian embassy in Damascus was attacked.
As armed rebels swept cities across Syria, they flung open detention facilities where rights groups estimated that at least 100,000 people were considered missing or forcibly disappeared since 2011 at the hands of the state. This included the Sednaya military prison, a facility notorious as the site of particularly brutal and humiliating methods of torture.
Updated
Syrian rebels entered the residence of the Italian ambassador in Damascus on Sunday, but did not harm him or his security staff, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said.
The anti-government fighters were looking for pro-Assad troops or relevant documents, and left after firing a few shots against a wall, Tajani told a press conference.
He said:
This morning an armed group entered the garden of the ambassador’s residence. They took away only three cars and that was it. Neither the ambassador nor the Carabinieri (embassy police) were harmed.
We are calling for a peaceful handover between the fallen regime and the new reality, so for a peaceful rather than military transition. It seems to me that at the moment things are going in this direction.
Updated
'The future is ours,' says rebel leader in first statement
Rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said in a statement read on Syria’s state TV after his forces took over Damascus that there is no room for turning back and the group is determined to continue the path they started in 2011 during the Arab spring.
“The future is ours,” al-Jolani’s statement said.
Jolani operated from the shadows for years. Now, he is in the limelight, giving interviews to the international media and appearing on the ground in Syria’s second city Aleppo after wresting it from government control for the first time in the country’s civil war.
Since breaking ties with Al-Qaida in 2016, Jolani has sought to portray himself as a more moderate leader. But he is yet to quell suspicions among analysts and western governments that still class HTS as a terrorist organisation (you can read more about Jolani in this explainer).
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu says he ordered Israeli military to seize Syria buffer zone
Speaking on a visit to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria was a “historic day” in the Middle East and said it represented the fall of a “central link in Iran’s axis of evil”.
“This is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, Assad’s main supporters. It has triggered a chain reaction across the Middle East, empowering those seeking to break free from this oppressive regime,” he said.
In a video posted to X, Netanyahu said the collapse of the Assad regime “offers great opportunity”, but caveats that it is also “fraught with significant dangers”, adding that he will “take action against possible threats”.
The Israeli leader said he ordered the military to seize a demilitarised buffer zone on the border with Syria. He said a 50-year-old “separation of forces agreement” between the two countries had collapsed as “the Syrian army abandoned its positions”.
As a result, Netanyahu said:
We gave the Israeli army the order to take over this position to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel. This is a temporary defensive position, until a suitable arrangement is found.
Israel, concerned by what it frames as Iran’s “military entrenchment” in Syria, has launched many airstrikes on targets in Syria that it claims are linked to Iran and allied armed groups such as Hezbollah.
Updated
Syrian rebels broadcast first news bulletin on state television – video
Syrian rebels have broadcast their first news bulletin on state television, announcing that they have “won the bet and toppled the criminal Assad regime”. Talking on Syria’s main news channel, the anchor said:
To those who thought one day that we were broken, we announce to you from the Syrian News Channel the victory of the great Syrian revolution after 13 years of patience and sacrifice.
You can watch the full broadcast here:
Syrian rebels enter northern city of Manbij - report
Turkey-backed Syrian forces entered the northern Syrian city of Manbij after taking control of most of the surrounding area from US- allied Kurdish forces there, a Turkish security source has told Reuters.
Reuters has the following report:
The operation comes after Syrian rebels in the south declared President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster after seizing control of Damascus.
“The fight against the YPG/PKK is very close to victory. Both air and land interventions are ongoing to take Manbij from the hands of the YPG/PKK,” the source said, referring to the Kurdish militia which has long been in control of Manbij.
The source subsequently said the rebel forces were in the city of Manbij itself. There was no immediate comment from Kurdish forces in the city, some 30 km (19 miles) south of the Turkish border and to the west of the Euphrates river.
Syrian rebels earlier said they had started an attack on Manbij, according to a statement posted on Sunday but dated Dec. 7 (Saturday) on X by the ministry of defence of the Syrian interim government.
The YPG has been a central element of US-allied forces in a coalition against Islamic State militants. Ankara says the YPG is a terrorist group, closely tied to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
Lebanese army 'reinforcing presence' on Syrian border in light of 'rapid developments'
The Lebanese army says it is reinforcing its presence on the border with neighbouring Syria after the dramatic fall of the Assad government.
The army said in a statement:
In light of rapid developments and delicate circumstances that the region is going through… units tasked with monitoring and controlling the northern and eastern borders have been reinforced, in conjunction with tightening surveillance measures.
Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said he discussed the security situation at the Syrian border with army commander Joseph Aoun and security forces chiefs.
“In these calls on the priority of tightening control over the border and distancing Lebanon from the repercussions of the developments in Syria”, his office said.
Syrian rebels have announced a curfew in Damascus starting 4pm local time until 5am.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II has said his government “stands by its Syrian brothers and respects their will and choices”, after rebels forces toppled Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
According to a royal statement, the king told his national security council that there was a “need to protect Syria’s security, its citizens” and to work towards “stability” and avoid any conflict that may lead to chaos.
Jordan’s interior minister has said the country had closed its side of the border as “a result of the surrounding security conditions in Syria’s south”. Amman has urged its citizens to leave Syria as soon as possible.
Updated
Qatar’s foreign ministry on Sunday warned Syria must not be allowed to descend into chaos after Islamist-led rebels declared they had taken Damascus and ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
The Gulf emirate said it was “closely monitoring the developments in Syria” and emphasised “the necessity of preserving national institutions and the unity of the state to prevent it from sliding into chaos”.
Qatar - which gave early support to the rebels after Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011, leading to the civil war - has remained a fierce critic of the Syrian President, who has, according to Moscow, left Damascus after talks with “other participants in the armed conflict”.
Updated
Egypt has called on all parties in Syria to preserve the capabilities of the state and national institutions, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Sunday, after the surprise ousting of President Bashar al-Assad by rebels.
The foreign ministry, in the first comments on the situation in Syria from an Arab government, said it was following the situation with great care, affirming its support for the Syrian people and the country’s sovereignty and unity.
'The barbaric state has fallen,' says French president Emmanuel Macron
French president Emmanuel Macron welcomed news of the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Sunday and said France will remain committed to the security of all in the Middle East.
“The barbaric state has fallen. Finally. I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience. In this moment of uncertainty, I wish them peace, freedom and unity,” Macron said in a post on X. “France will remain committed to the security of all in the Middle East.”
Updated
'The end of Assad's rule over Syria is good news,' says German chancellor Olaf Scholz
Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz has issued a statement on Syria, reports my colleague Deborah Cole.
Bashar al-Assad brutally oppressed his own people, has countless lives on his conscience and has driven numerous people to flee Syria, many of whom came to Germany. The Syrian people have suffered terribly. The end of Assad’s rule over Syria is therefore good news.
What matters now is that law and order are quickly restored in Syria. All religious communities, all minorities must enjoy protection now and in the future. A political solution to the conflict in Syria in accordance with UN security council Resolution 2254 is still possible.
We will judge the future rulers by whether they make it possible for all Syrians to live in dignity and self-determination, defend Syria’s sovereignty against malicious interference by third parties and live in peace with their neighbours.
Updated
Syrian rebels inside the presidential palace in Damascus - video
A video here shows Syrian rebels inside the presidential palace in Damascus:
This is from the BBC’s Lina Sinjab, who is reporting from Damascus;
We are standing by the presidential palace - one of the palaces where Assad used to live.
Lots of people, many coming from rural areas, broke into the palace and they have almost emptied it and destroyed everything.
By the time we arrived, the place had been almost emptied except for some pieces of furniture.
Members of rebel group the HTS have arrived to control the situation - they have said this is not acceptable.
I’ve lived in Syria for 10 years and have never been into this street.
I can see people rushing into this place in revenge and also with lots of happiness that they’ve managed to break in.
The scenes are very chaotic inside. There has been looting in other government buildings but this is a different situation.
People are going in, posing for pictures while taking what they can. They are taking revenge for years of oppression and poverty because of Assad and his father.
Updated
Assad has left Syria, Russian foreign ministry says
Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly 25 years, has left the country after giving orders there be a peaceful handover of power, according to Russia’s foreign ministry. It is unclear where he is. The ministry said that Moscow has not taken part in the talks around his departure.
It did disclose, however, that Russia’s military bases in Syria had been put on a state of high alert, though there is no serious threat to them presently. It said Moscow was in touch with all Syrian opposition groups and urged all sides to refrain from violence, Reuters reported. Russia, along with Iran, had been a key ally of Assad, having provided him military assistance to remain in power despite widespread unpopularity.
Updated
Syrian foreign ministry says a 'new page is being written' in the country's history today
The Syrian foreign ministry has just issued a statement, in which it says “a new page is being written in the history of Syria” today with the country having endured nearly 14 years of civil war.
Here is the statement, posted to X, in full:
Syrian brothers: 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 and in which everyone enjoys all rights and duties, far from one opinion. And citizenship is the basis.
The Ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates of the Syrian Arab republic and its diplomatic missions abroad will remain committed to serving all fellow citizens and managing their affairs, based on the trust they bear in representing the Syrian people, and that the homeland remains supreme.
Bashar al-Assad suppressed a popular uprising against him in 2011, when Syrians first took to the streets of major cities to demand his overthrow. What began as peaceful demonstrations later spilled over into a civil war that is estimated to have killed more than 300,000 people in 10 years of fighting, as my colleague writes in our latest report on the lightning rebel offensive.
Assad willingly turned the full might of the state on his own people in order to maintain control, including pummelling the civilian population with airstrikes and using chemical weapons including the deadly nerve agent sarin.
“We have to be watchful during this transition period,” Fidan added. “We are in communication with the groups to make sure that terrorist organisations, especially Daesh and PKK, are not taking advantage of the situation.” He said that Turkey was committed to “continue fighting against terrorism”, adding that all minorities, including Kurds, “should be treated equally”.
Bashar al-Assad ’probably outside of Syria’, Turkey's foreign ministers tells reporters
We have some more comments from Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, who has ben speaking in the Qatari capital of Doha. He said Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad was probably outside Syria after Islamist-led rebels declared he had fled the country.
Assad is “probably outside of Syria”, Fidan said when asked in Qatar about Assad’s whereabouts and whether his life might be in danger.
Reuters has been told by two senior army officials that Assad flew from Damascus, the Syrian capital, to an unknown location early on Sunday.
Turkey says Assad government has 'collapsed' and that control of Syria is 'changing hands’
Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, has said that Syria’s government has collapsed.
The “Assad regime collapsed and control of the country is changing hands”, Fidan said a the Doha Forum in Qatar.
He said that “this didn’t happen overnight. For the last 13 years, the country has been in turmoil” since civil war began with Assad’s repression of democracy protests in 2011.
Ankara has for years supported Syrian opposition forces looking to oust the Iran and Russia-backed Assad. A main concern of Turkey is the presence in northern Syria of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it regards as a terrorist group, closely tied with militants in Turkey who have fought a 40-year insurgency against the Turkish state.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has written the following about Turkey’s involvement in Syria (you can read his full anlaysis here):
Earlier this year, Assad had refused to speak to Turkey so long as Turkish forces remained in Syria. This refusal led the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to give the implicit green light to militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) last month to mount its stunningly successful attacks on Aleppo, and more recently into the city of Homs.
Ankara is convinced that the Syrian YPG, fighting under the flag of the Syrian Defence Forces and backed by the US, is the same as the Turkish Kurdish group, the PKK.
But there is no guarantee that Turkey can control the Islamist HTS, or simply order the group to end an offensive that has proved far more effective than even the HTS expected.
Updated
As a reminder, US President-elect Donald Trump said earlier in a post on Truth Social that Bashar al-Assad had “fled his country” after losing the backing of Russia.
Trump, who has said America should have “nothing to do” with events in Syria, posted:
Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.
Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success. Likewise, Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians. There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin.
Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!
Syria’s conflict broke out after the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, brutally crushed pro-democracy protests in 2011. The subsequent civil war, that has drawn in foreign armies and jihadists, has seen more than 500,000 people killed, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure and industry.
Iran sent thousands of Shi’ite militias to Syria during the Syrian war and alongside Russia with its air power enabled Assad to crush the insurgency and regain most of his territory.
Updated
US will maintain presence in eastern Syria - Pentagon
The Pentagon has said the US will keep a presence in eastern Syria and take the appropriate steps to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.
Deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East, Daniel Shapiro, also called for civilians, particularly minorities, to be protected and for international law to be adhered to by all parties, according to Sky News.
US ambassador Robert Wood said last week that American military positions and personnel in northeastern Syria remain essential to ensuring Islamic State can never resurge.
American troops are also stationed at Syria’s Tanf garrison near the intersection of the borders of Jordan and Iraq, where they support a Syrian rebel force to counter Islamic State in the area.
Assad’s government viewed US forces as occupiers. About 900 US troops are currently in the country, mostly in the northeast.
Who are the Syrian rebels claiming control of Damascus?
The rebels who have swept through Syria are led by Islamist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, along with an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army (SNA).
Here is an extract from our explainer on HTS, which is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaida, and the SNA:
Both have been entrenched in the north-west. They launched the shock offensive on 27 November with gunmen capturing Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the central city of Hama, the fourth largest.
The founder of HTS, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, was once a participant in the Iraqi insurgency against the US as a member of the group that eventually became Islamic State.
In its former incarnation as Jabhat al-Nusra or the Al-Nusra front, HTS later declared allegiance to al-Qaida. It eventually publicly broke those ties in 2016 and rebranded as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or Organization for the Liberation of the Levant.
HTS is now the most powerful rebel faction in Syria.
It is designated as a terrorist group by the US and there are serious human rights concerns in the area it controls, including executions for those accused of affiliation with rival groups and over allegations of blasphemy and adultery.
The HTS and Syrian National Army have been allies at times and rivals at times, and their aims might diverge.
Updated
Here is some video of the celebrations sweeping across Syrian cities as news spreads of Bashar al Assad’s brutal 24-year rule coming to an end:
Scenes from Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s fall - in pictures
A portrait of President Assad on the side of a building in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Celebrations in the Umayyad square, Damascus.
People have gathered in Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, which was seized by rebels last week.
From Homs, Syria’s third largest city.
Rebel fighters parade detained members of Syrian government forces in Homs.
Many Syrian people – forced to live in exile – are rushing to the Lebanese and Jordanian borders, desperate to return home:
Eleni Courea is a political correspondent for the Guardian.
In the UK, Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, welcomed the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.
She told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “The situation looks very serious. If Assad’s regime has fallen I welcome that news”. She added that Assad “wasn’t exactly good to the Syrian people”.
“What we need to see is a political resolution in line with the UN resolutions. We need to see civilians and infrastructure protected, far too many people have lost their lives, we need stability in that region,” the deputy prime minister said.
Asked about British citizens in Syria, Rayner said: “We’ve had a plan to ensure that people were evacuated ahead of what’s happened over the weekend and we continue to support our UK nationals.”
Iranian embassy in Damascus damaged – reports
Iranian media is reporting that Iran’s embassy in Damascus has been attacked. Images circulating on social media show some of the building’s windows have been broken.
Videos also show a banner of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah – who was assassinated by Israeli forces in September – and Iranian general Qassem Suleimani – who was killed in US airstrikes in 2020 – being torn by a crowd.
“Unknown individuals have attacked the Iranian embassy, as you can see in these images, shared by various networks,” an Iranian state TV broadcaster said, showing footage said to be from inside the diplomatic compound.
We mentioned in the opening summary that there are separate reports that the Iraqi embassy building in Damascus has been evacuated. The reason for the reported evacuation is not clear yet.
Updated
Syrian rebels say Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus and claim to have captured capital
Welcome back to our live coverage of the rebel offensive that seems to have been successful in toppling the Syrian government, led by longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.
Here are the latest developments:
Rebel forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, in Damascus have declared the Syrian capital “free” of Assad as government forces withdraw their presence.
In the capital’s central square, people climbed on top of tanks and cheered as they trampled on a toppled statue of Assad’s father, Hafez.
The Syrian rebel coalition said it is continuing work to complete the transfer of power in Syria to a transitional governing body with full executive powers.
Syrian prime minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government is ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government. “I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalili said.
Syria’s army command notified officers on Sunday that Assad’s regime had ended, Reuters is reporting. But the Syrian army later said it was continuing operations against “terrorist groups” in the key cities of Hama and Homs and in Deraa countryside.
Assad, who has ruled the country for nearly 25 years, has reportedly left Damascus by plane for an unknown destination.
US president-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Assad had “fled his country” after losing the backing of Russia. “Assad is gone,” he said on his Truth Social platform. “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer.”
Outgoing US President Joe Biden and his team were monitoring the “extraordinary events in Syria” and were in touch with regional partners, the White House said.
As armed rebels swept cities across the country, they flung open detention facilities where rights groups estimated that at least 100,000 people were considered missing or forcibly disappeared since 2011 at the hands of the state. This included the Sednaya military prison, a facility notorious as the site of particularly brutal and humiliating methods of torture.
Iraq has reportedly evacuated its embassy in Syria and moved staff to Lebanon, hours after rebels overthrew Assad and took control of the capital. Reasons behind the evacuation were not made public.
