DAMASCUS: Ousted president Bashar al-Assad broke his silence on Monday (Dec 16) after fleeing Syria, saying in an announcement that he only left once Damascus had fallen and denounced the country’s new leaders as “terrorists”.
Assad fled to Russia simply over every week in the past, as a lightning offensive spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) wrested from his management metropolis after metropolis till the rebels reached the Syrian capital.
The collapse of Assad’s rule surprised the world and sparked celebrations round Syria and past after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 sparked one of many deadliest wars of the century.
Rooted in Syria’s department of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by a number of Western governments as a terrorist organisation, although it has sought to reasonable its rhetoric and pledged to guard the nation’s spiritual minorities.
Lengthy earlier than the emergence of HTS and jihadist teams within the Syrian battle, nonetheless, Assad constantly branded his opponents, together with non-violent protesters, as “terrorists”.
“My departure from Syria was neither deliberate nor did it happen in the course of the ultimate hours of the battles,” stated an announcement on the ousted presidency’s Telegram channel.
Assad was propped up all through the battle by Russia and Iran.
“Moscow requested … a direct evacuation to Russia on the night of Sunday, Dec 8” after he moved that day to Latakia, the place Russia operates a naval base, the assertion stated.
“When the state falls into the palms of terrorism and the flexibility to make a significant contribution is misplaced, any place turns into void of goal,” added the assertion, launched in English.
Assad’s fall sparked rejoicing in Syria and around the globe after 5 a long time of rule by his clan, which had zero tolerance for dissent and operated a posh net of prisons to detain anybody even suspected of dissent.
“WE WANT OUR CHILDREN”
To the victims of a few of Assad’s worst atrocities, the top of his period introduced a glimmer of hope that they may discover closure.
As HTS and its allies superior by Syria, they opened jail gates to free folks suspected of dissent who had been held for days, months, years and even a long time.
“We would like our youngsters, alive, lifeless, burned, ashes, buried in mass graves … simply inform us,” Ayoush Hassan, 66, instructed AFP at Saydnaya, one of many prisons Assad had used to strike concern into Syrian society.
She travelled to the jail in Damascus from her dwelling in northern Syria, however may discover no hint of her lacking son.
In line with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, greater than 100,000 folks died in Syria’s jails and detention centres from 2011.
Ghazi Mohammed al-Mohammed, a survivor of detention, instructed AFP that officers seized him whereas he was on a visit to Damascus, took away his papers and stated to him: “Now you are quantity 3006.”
He doesn’t even know why he was arrested.
“In the direction of the top I simply needed to die, ready for once they would execute us. I used to be nearly pleased, as it could imply my struggling was over,” he stated.
The battle sparked by Assad’s crackdown on the revolt killed greater than 500,000 folks, in accordance with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and compelled greater than half the inhabitants to flee their houses.