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Assad flees as Syrian rebels seize Damascus

Syrian President Bashar Assad ousted from power after 24 years in office, as rebel forces seize Damascus in blitz campaign.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Anti-regime forces in Syria seized the capital city of Damascus over the weekend, forcing the country’s long-time president to flee the city.

“We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” the rebel Military Operations Command announced via Telegram Sunday morning.

Bashar Assad, 59, President of Syria since the death of his father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, in 2000, fled Damascus early Sunday morning, as rebels closed in on the city.

According to a report by Reuters which cited two senior Syrian army officers, Assad boarded a plane at Damascus airport Sunday morning for an unknown destination.

The sources added that Assad’s plane disappeared from radar, raising the possibility that the aircraft crashed.

According to the flight tracker website Flightrader, an aircraft registered with Syrian Air departed Damascus moments before the city’s fall.

The aircraft was tracked heading towards the Mediterranean coast before making a sudden U-turn and then dropping off the radar.

By contrast, Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali remained in the capital, announcing that he would back a new government to replace Assad’s regime.

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“I hope everyone will act rationally,” al-Jalali said. “I am ready to support the continued management of the country’s affairs.”

“We are ready to cooperate with any leadership the people choose. We extend a hand to every Syrian citizen who wishes to preserve the country’s capabilities and believe that Syria belongs to all Syrians.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based anti-Assad monitor group, has reported that the Syrian army’s central command considers the Assad regime to be terminated, and his instructed its officer corps to act accordingly.

After the fall of Damascus, thousands of residents gathered in the city’s central square before dawn Sunday, chanting “Freedom,” in Arabic.

The capture of the Syrian capital came just hours after the fall of the city of Homs, part of a lightning campaign by rebels building on the momentum of their capture of the northern city of Aleppo a week earlier.

Assad’s flight from Damascus and the collapse of his regime marks the end of 53 years of rule by the Assad family, and 61 years under the Ba’ath party control of Syria.

The collapse of the Assad government