Syria’s government falls in apparent stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family
Syrians celebrate the arrival of opposition fighters in Damascus, Syria. Photograph: Omar Sanadiki/APSyrian state television has aired a video statement by a group of men saying that president Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown and all detainees in jails have been set free.
‘I’m here for the long haul’: American veterans make new home in Ukraine as fears over US support grow State television in Iran, Mr Assad’s main backer in the years of war in Syria, reported that Mr Assad had left the capital. It cited Qatar’s Al Jazeera news network for the information and did not elaborate.An Associated Press journalist in Damascus reported seeing groups of armed residents along the road in the outskirts of the capital and hearing sounds of gunshots.
Soldiers and police officers left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence.“After the fear that he and his father made us live in for many years, and the panic and state of terror that I was living in, I can’t believe it.” It was the first time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a years-long siege.
The city stands at an important intersection between Damascus, the capital, and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus — the Syrian leader’s base of support and home to a Russian strategic naval base. The advances in the past week were by far the largest in recent years by opposition factions, led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organisation by the US and the United Nations.
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