Assad regime ends in Syria as rebels claim Damascus

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, known as HTS, has been credited with spearheading the rebel offensive that lead to the fall of the Syrian government and the overthrow of the Assad regime.

HTS grew out of the former Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. Though it cut ties with Al Qaeda in 2016 and has publicly abandoned rhetoric about creating an Islamic caliphate, the U.S. and U.N. continue to designate it as a terrorist organization.

Experts say HTS’s recent battlefield successes are the culmination of four years of trying to turn the rebel forces into one capable of challenging Assad’s army, equipping them with drones and other high-tech weapons of war.

“The expansion of units … along with large-scale indigenous rocket and missile production, has created a force that Assad’s regime has seriously struggled to defend against, let alone outmaneuver,” said Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank, in a post on X.

Russia’s foreign ministry says its military bases in Syria are on “high alert” following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster by rebel forces.

“All necessary measures are being taken to ensure the safety of our citizens in Syria,” the ministry said in a statement announcing that Assad had left the country today. “Russian military bases in Syria are on high alert. There is currently no serious threat to their security.”

Russia has an airbase in Hmeimim in the southeastern city of Latakia and a naval base in Tartus, on the Mediterranean coast. The Kremlin support had been decisive in helping Assad suppress Syria’s rebellion in the preceding 13 years of civil war.

Syria faces “Herculean challenges” as the rebels who deposed former President Bashar al-Assad try and transition into a government, Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, said in a statement today.

“There are no easy or immediate answers to what kind of Syria will emerge in the post-Assad future,” she said. “The new administration that emerges in Syria will need economic lifelines to rehabilitate and rebuild a country that has endured multiple cruelties since the start of the 2011 war.”

Ozcelik added that the fall of Assad “severely debilitated” Russia’s ability to project power in the country where it maintains a military presence.

“It will take time and negotiations with the new Syrian administration, a yet to be determined entity, before it is clear what Russia’s stakes in Syria will be,” she said. “But this is now a radically transformed Syria, and Russia has no good options.”

Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali, Syria’s prime minister, said today that he has no objections to resigning, following the fall of the Syrian government and the departure of former President Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Jalali told Al-Araby TV that he was prepared for the transfer of power and that rebel leader Ahmad Al-Shara had reached out to him. He said he had asked Al-Shara to redeploy police forces in Damascus.

The prime minister added that he was unaware of Assad’s whereabouts and had attempted to contact him this morning, but was unsuccessful.

The U.S. will continue its operations in eastern Syria and take all necessary steps to prevent the Islamic State’s resurgence, Daniel Shapiro, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, announced today.

“We are aware that the chaotic and dynamic circumstances on the ground in Syria could give ISIS space to find the ability to become active, to plan external operations, and we’re determined to work with those partners to continue to degrade their capabilities,” he said at the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain’s capital.

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad has left the country and relinquished the presidency, according to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It did not say where Assad is now.

“As a result of negotiations between Bashar Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to leave the presidential post and left the country, giving instructions to transfer power peacefully,” it said in a statement today.

It added that Russia was “following the dramatic events in Syria with extreme concern” and is “in contact with all Syrian opposition groups.”

People are toppling statues of Hafez al-Assad, father of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, across Syria, according to Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group.

Rebels seized control of Damascus today and overthrew the government after 50 years of rule by the Assad dynasty.

“The statue of Hafez al-Assad was toppled in #Jableh, #Banias and #Tartous,” Abdurrahman posted on Facebook, noting that “things are not going in a dangerous direction.”

Videos circulating on social media and verified by NBC News appear to show Syrians celebrating across Damascus after rebels said they captured the city and ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

Footage taken during the night shows crowds of people honking horns and waving flags in Umayyad Square, a landmark in the heart of the city.

Another video shows people posing for pictures and selfies while standing next to and on top of a tank in the square, while video taken today shows people shooting their guns into the air in the same place.

Earlier today, rebel group HTS urged people not to fire guns into the air in order to avoid causing panic among the people.

Angry Syrians stormed the Iranian Embassy in Damascus this morning after Syrian rebels claimed the city and declared an end to the Assad regime.

Protesters tore down posters of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani that adorned the embassy, while offices inside the building were ransacked, as seen in video published by The Associated Press.

Iran is a close ally of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrians must face the challenges of a full-scale civil war on their own, Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy chairman of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said today in a post in Telegram.

“One way or another, the civil war will not end today, there is too much conflict of interests and too much opposition of forces,” he said. “If the people of Syria continue to require our support, it will be provided. But it is unlikely — in the conditions of a full-scale civil war. The Syrians will have to cope with it themselves.”

The capture of Damascus and a transition of power after 50 years of rule by the Assad dynasty has raised concerns of a new wave of instability in a region already gripped by war.

Russia, a key ally of Assad, played a pivotal role in supporting his regime since intervening in 2015 during the civil war that began in 2011. But its lukewarm support for Assad in the last couple of weeks failed to keep the rebels at bay.

Syrian rebels announced on state television today that they have “liberated” Damascus and overthrown “the tyrant Bashar al-Assad.”

Speaking from the “Operations Room for the Liberation of Damascus,” the rebels also said they had freed “all unjustly detained prisoners” from the regime’s prisons.

Earlier today, HTS announced “the end of the era of oppression in Sednaya Prison” in a WhatsApp group. The Syrian government has detained thousands at the military prison on the outskirts of Damascus, according to Reuters.

Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, Syria’s prime minister, said he has not left the country and is willing to work with any group as the transition of power begins.

“This country can be a normal state, one that builds good relations with its neighbors without entering into any regional alliances or blocs,” he said in a statement today.

“This matter is left to any leadership chosen by the Syrian people, and we are ready to cooperate with them by providing all possible facilitation,” he said.

The Israel Defense Forces said it has deployed forces in the buffer zone and in other places “to ensure the safety of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel.”

“We emphasize that the IDF is not interfering with the internal events in Syria,” it said in a post on X.

In a separate post, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed armed forces had entered the buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border and expressed concerns over violations of a 1974 agreement that established a zone of separation between the two countries.

The Syrian rebel coalition announced Sunday that it is continuing efforts to finalize the transfer of power to a transitional governing body with full executive powers.

“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,” it said in a statement seen and translated by Reuters.

The rebels’ claim would open a new chapter in the 13-year-long civil war that has ravaged the country.

President Joe Biden was “monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners,” White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement last night.

In a post on his Truth Social platform yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump said in all capital letters that the United States should “have nothing to do with” the situation in Syria. “This is not our fight. Let it play out.” 

Rebel fighters say they have captured the Syrian capital of Damascus, as government forces loyal to the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, were routed in a matter of days.

The rebels’ claim would open a new chapter in the 13-year-long civil war that has ravaged the country.

“We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” Hassan Abdul-Ghani, senior commander of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS, said in a post on WhatsApp. “To the displaced people around the world, Free Syria awaits you.”

Assad’s location was not immediately known. Multiple media reports indicate he has left Damascus, and Abdul-Ghani said Assad had fled.

NBC News has not independently confirmed the rebel’s claims.

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