AMMAN: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown vacation spot on Sunday (Dec 8), two senior military officers instructed Reuters, as rebels stated they’d entered the capital with no signal of military deployments.
1000’s in vehicles and on foot congregated at a foremost sq. in Damascus waving and chanting “freedom”, witnesses stated.
“We rejoice with the Syrian individuals the information of liberating our prisoners and releasing their chains and saying the tip of the period of injustice in Sednaya jail,” stated the rebels.
Sednaya is a big navy jail on the outskirts Damascus the place the Syrian authorities detained 1000’s.
A Syrian Air aircraft took off from Damascus airport across the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, in keeping with knowledge from the Flightradar web site.
The plane initially flew in direction of Syria’s coastal area, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, however then made an abrupt U-turn and flew in the wrong way for a couple of minutes earlier than disappearing off the map.
Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm who was on board.
Simply hours earlier, rebels introduced they’d gained full control of the key city of Homs after solely a day of preventing, leaving Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread.
Intense sounds of taking pictures have been heard within the centre of the Damascus, two residents stated on Sunday, though it was not instantly clear what the supply of the taking pictures was.
In rural areas southwest of the capital, native youths and former rebels took benefit of the lack of authority to return to the streets in acts of defiance towards the Assad household’s authoritarian rule.
1000’s of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the military withdrew from the central metropolis, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free” and “Lengthy dwell Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad”.
Rebels fired into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial management has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the navy.
The autumn of Homs provides the insurgents management over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key freeway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal area that’s the stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect and the place his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.
Homs’ seize can be a robust image of the insurgent motion’s dramatic comeback within the 13-year-old battle. Swathes of Homs have been destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the military years in the past. The preventing floor down the insurgents, who have been compelled out.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the primary insurgent chief, known as the seize of Homs a historic second and urged fighters to not hurt “those that drop their arms”.
Rebels freed 1000’s of detainees from town jail. Safety forces left in haste after burning their paperwork.
Residents of quite a few Damascus districts turned out to protest Assad on Saturday night, and safety forces have been both unwilling or unable to clamp down.
Syrian insurgent commander Hassan Abdul Ghani stated in a press release early on Sunday that operations have been ongoing to “fully liberate” the countryside round Damascus and insurgent forces have been wanting towards the capital.
In a single suburb, a statue of Assad’s father, the late president Hafez al-Assad, was toppled and torn aside.
The Syrian military stated it was reinforcing round Damascus, and state tv reported on Saturday that Assad remained within the metropolis.
Outdoors town, rebels swept throughout your entire southwest over 24 hours and established management.