The person who read the statement said the opposition group, known as the Operation Room for the Conquest of Damascus, called on all rebel fighters and citizens to preserve the institutions of the “free Syrian state”.
The statement came hours after the head of a Syrian opposition military monitor said Assad had left the country at an undisclosed location, fleeing rebels who said they had entered Damascus after a remarkably rapid advance into the country.
Many in the capital were in disbelief at the speed with which Assad lost control of the country after nearly 14 years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million and attracted several foreign powers.
Celebrations break out in the capital
As the day dawned over Damascus, crowds gathered to pray in the city’s mosques and celebrate in the squares, chanting “God is great.” People also chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns. Teenagers picked up weapons that had apparently been discarded by security forces and fired them into the air.
Celebrants filled Umayyad Square in the center of the city, where the Ministry of Defense is located. The men fired celebratory shots into the air and some waved the three-star Syrian flag that predates the Assad government and is adopted by the revolutionaries. A few kilometers away, Syrians stormed the presidential palace, tearing down portraits of the ousted president.
Soldiers and policemen abandoned their posts and fled, and looters broke into the Ministry of Defense. Videos from Damascus showed families wandering into the presidential palace, some leaving carrying piles of dishes and other household items.
“I did not sleep last night and refused to sleep until I heard the news of his fall,” said Mohammed Amer Al-Ulabi, 44, who works in the electricity sector.
“From Idlib to Damascus (the opposition forces) took them only a few days, thank God.” God bless them, the heroic lions who made us proud.”
Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, historically pro-government, wrote: “We are facing a new page for Syria.”
“Thank God that no more blood was shed. We believe and trust that Syria will be for all Syrians,” the statement said.
The newspaper added that media workers should not be blamed for publishing government statements in the past.
“We only followed the instructions and published the news they sent us,” the statement said.
“Now it quickly became clear that was false.”
A statement from the Alawite sect, to which Assad belongs and which forms the core of his base, called on young Syrians to be “calm, rational and prudent and not be drawn into what is tearing apart the unity of our country”.
Assad’s whereabouts are unknown
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said in a video statement that the government was ready to “reach out” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government. A video released by Syrian opposition media showed a group of armed men escorting him from his office to the Four Seasons Hotel on Sunday.
The prime minister earlier told the Al Arabiya news network that he did not know where Assad and the defense minister were. He said he lost contact with Assad late Saturday.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Associated Press that Assad flew out Sunday from Damascus.
A senior diplomat from the United Arab Emirates, which has sought to rehabilitate Assad’s image and welcomed high-profile exiles in recent years, declined to comment on his whereabouts when asked by reporters at a conference in Bahrain.
Anwar Gargash said Assad’s destination at this point was “a footnote in history”, comparing it to the long exile of German Kaiser Wilhelm II after the First World War.
Assad has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war, including a 2013 chemical weapons attack. on the outskirts of the capital.
There was no immediate comment from Iran, which has been Assad’s staunchest supporter.
The Iranian embassy in Damascus was ransacked after apparently being abandoned. AP footage shows broken windows and documents scattered in the entrance.
Opposition forces had not reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops retook areas on the outskirts of the capital after a years-long siege.
It calls for an orderly transition as it remains unclear what comes next
The rebel advance since November 27 was the biggest in years and saw the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs fall in a matter of days as the Syrian army melted away. Russia, Iran and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which provided crucial support to Assad during the uprising, abandoned him in recent days as they were swayed by other conflicts.
The rebels are led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, group, which traces its origins to al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organization by Australia, the United States and the United Nations.
Its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has sought to reshape the group’s image, cutting ties with al-Qaida, rejecting hardliners and pledging to embrace pluralism and religious tolerance.
HTS established a “salvation government” in 2017 to rule a large region of northwestern Syria under its control.
“Golani made history and ignited hope among millions of Syrians,” said Dareen Khalifa, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group and an expert on Syria groups.
“But he and the rebels now face a huge challenge. One can only hope that they will manage the situation.”
The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, called on Saturday for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country is Assad’s main international backer, said he was “sorry for the Syrian people”.
Gulf country Qatar, a key regional mediator, hosted an emergency meeting of foreign ministers and senior officials from eight countries with interests in Syria late Saturday. Participants included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Turkey.
Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari, spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry and adviser to the prime minister, told reporters they agreed on the need to “engage all parties on the ground,” including HTS, and that the main concern was “stability and safe transition’.
Israel’s military said Sunday it had deployed forces to a demilitarized buffer zone along its northern border with Syria following a rebel offensive there.
The military, which said it had also sent troops to “other locations necessary for its defense,” said the deployment was aimed at providing security to residents of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel captured the territory during the 1967 Middle East War. and the international community, with the exception of the US, considers it occupied.
