Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left office and departed the country after giving orders of a peaceful handover of power, the Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed.
In a statement, the ministry did not say where al-Assad was now and said Russia has not taken part in talks around his departure.
It said Russia’s military based in Syria had been put on a state of high alert, but there was no serious threat to them at present.
Moscow is understood to be in touch with all Syrian opposition groups and urged all sides to refrain from violence.
It comes as Syrians have stormed al-Assad’s presidential palace in Damascus as rebels declare that the country is ‘free’ from the ‘tyrant’.
The opposition fighters reached the suburbs of the capital yesterday for the first time since the region was recaptured by government troops in 2018.
President Bashar al-Assad (pictured) fled the country on a plane this morning
Syrian state television showed rebels milling around inside al-Assad’s presidential palace after the despot fled on a plane
People celebrate at Umayyad Square in Damascus on December 8, 2024, as rebel soldiers declare that they have taken the capital
Syrian state television showed the rebels milling around inside the despot’s palace after he fled this morning on a plane to an unknown destination.
Military and intelligence officials were being quizzed by the rebel soldiers about al-Assad’s whereabouts as they tried to pinpoint his movements.
Following the capture of Damascus, the HTS (Hayyet Tahrir al-Sham) said on Telegram that it was the end of a dark era and the beginning of a new one.
The rebels said that people displaced or imprisoned under the half-century reign of al-Assad can now come home.
HTS said it will be a ‘new Syria’ where ‘everyone lives in peace and justice prevails’.
A statue of the late father of al-Assad in a main square in Jermana suburb, ten kilometres from the capital, has also been toppled.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
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