Syria’s authorities seems to have fallen after opposition fighters mentioned that they had entered Damascus following a shocking advance and a Syrian opposition struggle monitor reported that President Bashar Assad had left the nation.
Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights mentioned Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday. There was no speedy official assertion from the Syrian authorities.
It was the primary time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a yearslong siege.
The evening earlier than, opposition forces had taken the central metropolis of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as authorities forces deserted it.
The quickly creating occasions have shaken the area. Lebanon mentioned it was closing all its land border crossings with Syria apart from one which hyperlinks Beirut with Damascus. Jordan closed a border crossing with Syria, too.
Eight key international locations gathered with the U.N. particular envoy on Syria on the sidelines of the Doha Summit for 2 hours of discussions Saturday evening, and extra will observe. The U.N. envoy seeks pressing talks in Geneva to make sure an “orderly political transition.”
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DAMASCUS — Syrian state TV has aired a video assertion by a bunch of males saying that President Bashar Assad was overthrown and all prisoners have been let loose.
The person who learn an announcement mentioned the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus is asking on all opposition fighters and residents to protect state establishments of “the free Syrian state.”
“Lengthy reside the free Syrian state that’s to all Syrians and all” their sects and ethnic teams, they mentioned.
DAMASCUS — Organizations that had beforehand been near the federal government of Bashar Assad tried to distance themselves after its fast fall.
Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, traditionally pro-government, wrote: “We face a brand new web page for Syria. We thank God for not shedding extra blood. We imagine and belief that Syria will probably be for all Syrians.”
It added that media staff shouldn’t be blamed for publishing authorities statements prior to now.
“We solely carried out the directions and printed the information they despatched us,” it mentioned. “It shortly turned clear now that it was false.”
An announcement from the Alawite sect — to which Assad belongs and which has shaped the core of his base — known as on the youth to be “calm, rational and prudent and to not be dragged into what tears aside the unity of our nation.”
“We have been and nonetheless are advocates of peace and advocates of unity,” it mentioned. It known as for “the language of motive and dialogue to prevail over all events within the service of Syria and its nice individuals.”
DAMASCUS — As daylight broke over Damascus for the primary time after the autumn of the federal government of Bashar Assad to a shock offensive launched by opposition forces, crowds gathered to wish within the metropolis’s mosques and to have fun within the squares, chanting: “God is nice.”
Troopers and law enforcement officials had left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the headquarters of the Ministry of Protection.
Most of the capital’s residents have been in disbelief on the pace with which Assad’s maintain on the nation had fallen after almost 14 years of civil struggle.
“I didn’t sleep final evening and I didn’t settle for to sleep till I heard the information of his fall,” mentioned Mohammed Amer Al-Oulabi, 44, who works within the electrical energy sector. “From Idlib to Damascus, it solely took them (the opposition forces) a number of days, thank God. Might God bless them, the heroic lions who made us proud.”
DAMASCUS – Crowds of Syrians have gathered to have fun within the central squares of Damascus, chanting anti-Assad slogans and honking automobile horns. In some areas, celebratory gunshots rang out.
“My emotions are indescribable,” mentioned Omar Daher, a 29-year-old lawyer. “After the worry that he (Assad) and his father made us reside in for a few years, and the panic and state of terror that I used to be residing in, I can’t imagine it.”
Daher mentioned his father had been killed by safety forces and his brother was in detention, his destiny unknown. Assad “is a prison, a tyrant and a canine,” he mentioned.
“Rattling his soul and the soul of the complete Assad household,” mentioned Ghazal al-Sharif, one other reveler in central Damascus. “It’s the prayer of each oppressed individual and God answered it at the moment.
— Abdulrahman Shaheen in Damascus.
BEIRUT – The chief of the biggest rebel group in Syria has prohibited his fighters from getting near state establishments saying they’ll stay underneath the supervision of the nation’s prime minister these days.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, chief of the jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, additionally banned his fighters from opening fireplace within the air within the capital Damascus.
“Public establishments will stay underneath the supervision of the prime minister till they’re formally handed over,” he mentioned in an announcement printed on his group’s social media shops.
Al-Golani’s feedback got here as Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali mentioned he’s extending his hand to the opposition including that he desires to ensure that state establishments perform.
DAMASCUS – Syria’s authorities seems to have fallen in a shocking finish to the 50-year rule of the Assad household after a lightning offensive by insurgents this week.
The obvious fall got here after the pinnacle of a Syrian opposition struggle monitor mentioned early Sunday that President Bashar Assad left the nation for an undisclosed location, fleeing forward of insurgents who mentioned that they had entered Damascus after a shocking advance throughout the nation.
Rami Abdurrahman advised The Related Press that Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday.
Then Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali mentioned the federal government was able to “prolong its hand” to the opposition and hand over its features to a transitional authorities.
“I’m in my home and I’ve not left, and that is due to my belonging to this nation,” Jalili mentioned in a video assertion.
White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesman Sean Savett mentioned President Biden and his staff are carefully monitoring the extraordinary occasions in Syria and staying in fixed contact with regional companions.
DAMASCUS – Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali mentioned in a video assertion that the federal government is able to “prolong its hand” to the opposition and hand over its features to a transitional authorities.
“I’m in my home and I’ve not left, and that is due to my belonging to this nation,” Jalili mentioned.
He mentioned he would go to his workplace to proceed work within the morning and known as on Syrian residents to not deface public property.
He didn’t deal with experiences that President Bashar Assad has left the nation.
There was no speedy remark from the United Arab Emirates on Assad’s whereabouts. Assad’s household has in depth actual property holdings in Dubai.
BEIRUT – The navy command of the Syrian opposition says its fighters have entered the capital Damascus claiming that it’s “free” of President Bashar Assad’s rule.
The so-called Army Command Administration mentioned Assad had fled with out giving additional particulars.
Assad’s departure marks the top of the 54-year of Assad household rule of Syria with an iron fist. His father Hafez Assad got here to energy in a cold coup in 1970 and dominated till his loss of life in 2000. Bashar Assad was elected weeks after his father’s loss of life and dominated Syria till he was overthrown on Sunday.
The command declared the top of “the darkish interval and the start of a brand new period in Syria.”
State tv in Iran, Assad’s essential backer within the years of struggle in Syria, reported that “terrorists” had entered Damascus and that Assad had left the capital. It cited Qatar’s Al Jazeera information community for the data and didn’t elaborate.
BEIRUT – The pinnacle of a Syrian opposition struggle monitor says Syria’s President Bashar Assad has left the nation for an undisclosed location.
Rami Abdurrahman tells The Related Press that Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday.
Abdurrahman’s feedback got here after the protesters took over the Syrian capital.
An Related Press journalist in Damascus reported seeing teams of armed residents alongside the street within the outskirts of the capital and listening to sounds of gunshots. Town’s essential police headquarters gave the impression to be deserted, its door left ajar with no officers outdoors.
One other AP journalist shot footage of an deserted military checkpoint, uniforms discarded on the bottom underneath a poster of Assad’s face.
Syrian insurgents say they’ve entered Damascus, capping a shocking advance throughout the nation, as residents of the capital reported sounds of gunfire and explosions.
There was no speedy official assertion from the Syrian authorities. The professional-government Sham FM radio reported that Damascus airport was evacuated and the insurgents introduced that they had entered the infamous Saydnaya navy jail north of the capital and “liberated our prisoners” there.
The evening earlier than, opposition forces had taken the central metropolis of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as authorities forces deserted it. The federal government denied rumors that President Bashar Assad had fled the nation.
The lack of Homs represented a doubtlessly crippling blow for Assad. It stands at an vital intersection between Damascus, the capital, and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus — the Syrian chief’s base of assist and residential to a Russian strategic naval base.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s nationwide safety adviser says the Biden administration has no intention of intervening in Syria.
“The USA isn’t going to … militarily dive into the center of a Syrian civil struggle,” Jake Sullivan mentioned Saturday at an annual gathering of nationwide safety officers, protection corporations and lawmakers in California.
He mentioned the U.S. would preserve performing as essential to preserve the Islamic State group — a violently anti-Western extremist group not identified to be concerned within the offensive however with sleeper cells in Syria’s deserts — from exploiting openings introduced by the preventing.
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah, “have all been weakened and distracted,” Sullivan mentioned. He later added that “none of them are ready to supply the type of assist to Assad that they supplied prior to now.”
The Biden administration says Syrian opposition forces’ seize of government-held cities demonstrates simply how diminished these international locations are by wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon.
The Syrian insurgency introduced Saturday that it has taken over Homs, following experiences of presidency forces withdrawing from the strategic metropolis.
This newest improvement within the fighters’ swift shock offensive within the war-torn nation has left embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad successfully accountable for the capital Damascus and two different cities the place his key assist base among the many Alawite Muslim inhabitants are primarily based.
Homs is a crucial intersection between Damascus and Syria’s coastal provinces which might be the Syrian chief’s base of assist.
Syrian opposition fighters have reached the suburbs of the capital, Damascus because the fighters’ offensive picks up pace. President Bashar Assad’s whereabouts are unknown.
The mom of an Israeli man held hostage in Gaza and seen in a newly launched video by Hamas says “sufficient with the video games” and requires extra strain on the federal government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Einav Zangauker advised an illustration in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening that like her son Matan, “there are a number of dozen who’re at the moment alive. Don’t enable them to be introduced again lifeless in luggage. Take to the streets.”
Matan Zangauker, talking underneath duress, appealed to the general public to protest in entrance of Netanyahu’s residence and “not let him sleep even for a minute.” Zangauker additionally referred to 420 days of being held by Hamas militants and mentioned “isolation is killing us.”
Police used a water cannon on the demonstrators as 1000’s took to the streets for the weekly anti-government protests.
Two officers with Iran-backed Iraqi militias in Syria say the militias are monitoring the state of affairs and haven’t decided to enter in assist of Iran’s ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.
One of many officers mentioned Iranian militias had withdrawn to Iraq from their positions in Syria.
“All of the militias are ready to see what Bashar Assad will do in Damascus. If he resists and doesn’t enable Damascus to fall, it’s potential that the Iraqi factions will intervene for the aim of assist,” he mentioned.
The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk publicly concerning the matter.
— Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad
Multi-country discussions on Syria have ended on the sidelines of the Doha Summit. Iraqi Overseas Minister Fuad Hussein says the international locations will difficulty an announcement, and there will probably be follow-up talks “bearing in mind the sensible and actual state of affairs on the bottom.”
He mentioned the talks, which lasted over two hours Saturday night, targeted on learn how to cease the preventing. Eight key international locations together with Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran gathered with the U.N. particular envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen.
When requested the place Syrian President Bashar Assad is, Iraq’s overseas minister replied, “I don’t know.” He declined to take a position on whether or not Assad can be overthrown. Opposition fighters have reached the Damascus suburbs.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Well being Ministry says two Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday killed six individuals and wounded 5 others.
The ministry mentioned an airstrike on the village of Beit Leif killed 5 individuals and wounded 5, whereas a drone strike on the village of Deir Serian killed one individual.
Israel’s navy mentioned it was trying into the report.
Regardless of a ceasefire that went into impact on Nov. 27 to finish the 14-month preventing between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants that had escalated into all-out struggle, violations of the truce have continued.
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza says the ability got here underneath heavy Israeli bombardment once more on Saturday and three medical workers have been killed.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safia in an announcement posted by Gaza’s Well being Ministry mentioned the hospital was hit by over 100 projectiles and bombs, and electrical energy was minimize off. He mentioned the surgical procedure division and neonatal unit have been hit, and he pleaded for “speedy coordination for restore operations.”
Kamal Adwan is without doubt one of the final remaining hospitals in northern Gaza. Israeli forces are urgent an offensive that has virtually fully sealed off the realm from humanitarian help for 2 months.
Israel’s navy mentioned it wasn’t conscious of any assault Saturday.
The hospital director on Friday mentioned Israeli strikes had killed not less than 29 individuals together with 4 medical workers.
Israeli Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says the navy is monitoring the Syrian border to be sure that “native factions don’t direct actions in direction of us,” including that Israel isn’t intervening within the occasions in Syria.
Israel’s navy has mentioned it’s reinforcing its deployment alongside the border with Syria. Halevi mentioned if “confusion” arises and actions are directed towards Israel by “native factions” taking management of components of Syria, Israel has a robust “offensive response.”
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Syria says the U.N. is relocating non-critical workers outdoors the nation.
Adam Abdelmoula in an announcement Saturday known as it a precautionary measure to guard U.N. groups. “Let me emphasize—this isn’t an evacuation and our dedication to supporting the individuals of Syria stays unwavering,” Abdelmoula mentioned.
The assertion didn’t say what number of U.N. staffers have been leaving Syria as opposition fighters reached the suburbs of Syria’s capital, Damascus. The assertion mentioned the preventing in Syria has displaced over 370,000 individuals because the humanitarian state of affairs deteriorates, “with many searching for refuge within the northeast and others trapped in frontline areas, unable to flee.”
Overseas ministers and senior diplomats from eight key international locations together with Saudi Arabia, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and Iran have gathered on the sidelines of the Doha Summit together with the U.N. particular envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, to debate the state of affairs in Syria.
The talks continued late Saturday and no particulars have been instantly obtainable. Qatar, Jordan and Iraq additionally have been a part of the discussions as opposition fighters closed in on the Syrian capital, Damascus.
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi authorities spokesperson says about 2,000 Syrian military troopers have crossed into Iraq searching for refuge as opposition forces advance in Syria.
Bassem al-Awadi mentioned the troopers’ gear and weapons have been registered and brought into custody by the Iraqi military. “We handled them in keeping with the precept of excellent neighborliness and humanity,” he mentioned Saturday.
Al-Awadi additionally mentioned Iraqi officers are involved concerning the safety of the al-Hol camp and different services in northeast Syria the place suspected Islamic State group members and their households are detained. The services are guarded by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.
Al-Awadi mentioned there’s “excessive safety coordination” between Iraqi officers and people forces to “forestall the prisoners from escaping.”
Syria’s military says it’s fortifying its positions within the suburbs of Damascus and within the nation’s south, as opposition fighters shut in on the capital.
The military assertion on Saturday additionally asserted that Syria is being subjected to a “terrorist” and propaganda marketing campaign aiming to destabilize and unfold chaos.
The assertion additionally mentioned the navy is continuous with operations in areas together with the central provinces of Hama and Homs, and that it has killed and wounded tons of of opposition fighters.
