\n Celebrations erupted around Syria and crowds ransacked President Bashar al-Assad's luxurious home on Sunday after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared he had fled the country, in a spectacular end to five decades of Baath party rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n Assad's whereabouts were not clear, but his key backer Russia said he had resigned from the presidency and left Syria.\n<\/p>\n
\n Residents in the capital were seen cheering in the streets as the rebel factions heralded the departure of \"tyrant\" Assad, saying: \"We declare the city of Damascus free.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n AFPTV footage showed a column of smoke rising from central Damascus, and AFP correspondents in the city saw dozens of men, women and children wandering through Assad's home after it had been looted.\n<\/p>\n
\n The rooms of the residence had been left completely empty, save some furniture and a portrait of Assad discarded on the floor, while an entrance hall at the presidential palace not far away had been torched.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I can't believe I'm living this moment,\" tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We've been waiting a long time for this day,\" he said, adding: \"We are starting a new history for Syria.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Assad's reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning offensive.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"After 50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and displacement... we announce today the end of this dark period and the start of a new era for Syria,\" the rebel factions said on Telegram.\n<\/p>\n
\n While there has been no communication from Assad or his entourage on his whereabouts, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali said he was ready to cooperate with \"any leadership chosen by the Syrian people\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The head of war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP: \"Assad left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left\" the facility.\n<\/p>\n
\n AFP has been unable to independently verify some of the information provided by the different parties, including the reported departure.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Prisoners set free -\n<\/p>\n
\n Around the country, people toppled statues of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad's father and the founder of the system of government that he inherited.\n<\/p>\n
\n For the past 50 years in Syria, even the slightest suspicion of dissent could land one in prison or get one killed.\n<\/p>\n
\n As rebels entered the capital, HTS said its fighters broke into a jail on the outskirts of Damascus, announcing an \"end of the era of tyranny in the prison of Sednaya\", which has become a by-word for the darkest abuses of Assad's era.\n<\/p>\n
\n UN war crimes investigators on Sunday described Assad's fall as a \"historic new beginning\" for Syrians, urging those taking charge to ensure the \"atrocities\" committed under his rule are not repeated.\n<\/p>\n
\n The rapid developments came just hours after HTS said it had captured the strategic city of Homs, where prisoners were also released.\n<\/p>\n
\n Homs was the third major city seized by the rebels, who began their advance on November 27.\n<\/p>\n
\n US President Joe Biden was keeping a close eye on the \"extraordinary events\" unfolding in Syria, the White House said.\n<\/p>\n
\n US president-elect Donald Trump said that Assad had \"fled his country\" after losing Russia's backing.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Syria is ours' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Rebel factions aired a statement on Syrian state television, urging fighters and citizens to safeguard the \"property of the free Syrian state\".\n<\/p>\n
\n State TV broadcast a message proclaiming the \"victory of the great Syrian revolution\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The Islamist leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, visited Damascus's landmark Umayyad Mosque, as crowds greeted him with smiles and embraces, AFP images showed.\n<\/p>\n
\n HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda.\n<\/p>\n
\n Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, HTS has sought to soften its image in recent years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Before Sunday's announcements, residents had described to AFP a state of panic in Damascus, but morning saw chants and cheering, with celebratory gunfire and shouts of \"Syria is ours and not the Assad family's\".\n<\/p>\n
\n On Sunday afternoon the rebels announced a curfew in the capital until 5:00 am (0200 GMT) Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The commander of Syria's US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of northeast Syria, hailed as \"historic\" the fall of Assad's \"authoritarian regime\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'We're going home' -\n<\/p>\n
\n The Observatory on Sunday said Israel struck Syrian army weapons depots Sunday on the outskirts of Damascus.\n<\/p>\n
\n Assad's rule had for years been supported by Lebanese group Hezbollah, whose forces \"vacated their positions around Damascus\", a source close to the group said Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the overthrow of Assad was a \"historic day in the... Middle East\" and the fall of a \"central link in Iran's axis of evil\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, Assad's main supporters,\" he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n The rebel offensive began the very day a ceasefire took effect in Lebanon after nearly a year of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN envoy for Syria said the country was at \"a watershed moment\", while Turkey, which has historically backed the opposition, called for a \"smooth transition\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Iran, a key backer of Assad throughout the civil war, said it expected \"friendly\" ties with Syria to continue, even as its embassy in Damascus was vandalised.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since the start of the rebel offensive, at least 826 people, mostly combatants but also including 111 civilians, have been killed, the Observatory said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Syria's war killed more than 500,000 people, and forced half of the population to flee their homes.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I can barely remember Syria,\" said Reda al-Khedr, who was only five years old when he and his mother escaped Syria's Homs in 2014.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"But now we're going to go home to a liberated Syria,\" he told AFP in Cairo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Celebrations erupted around Syria and crowds ransacked President Bashar al-Assad's luxurious home on Sunday after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared he had fled the country, in a spectacular end to five decades of Baath party rule. Assad's whereabouts were not clear, but his key backer Russia said he had resigned from the presidency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-139206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n