BEIRUT: Islamist-led rebels declared that they had taken Damascus in a lightning offensive on Sunday, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending the 50-year rule of the Assad family
Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying that President Bashar Assad has been overthrown and all detainees in jails have been set free.
The man who read the statement said the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus, an opposition group, called on all opposition fighters and citizens to preserve state institutions of “the free Syrian state.”
The statement emerged hours after the head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus following the remarkably swift advance across the country.
Residents in the Syrian 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".
AFPTV images from Damascus showed rebels firing into the air at sunrise, with some flashing the victory sign and crying "Allahu akbar", or God is greatest.
Some climbed atop a tank in celebration, while others defaced a toppled statue of Assad's father, Hafez.
"I can't believe I'm living this moment," tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone.
"We've been waiting a long time for this day," he said, adding: "We are starting a new history for Syria."
The president's alleged departure, which was also reported by a war monitor, comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group launched its campaign challenging more than five decades of rule by the Assad family.
"After 50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and (forced) 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.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali said he was ready to cooperate with "any leadership chosen by the Syrian people".
“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalili said in a video statement. He said he would go to his office to continue work in the morning and called on Syrian citizens not to deface public property.
Jalali said he didn't know the whereabouts of Bashar Assad and his defence minister. He told the Saudi television network Al-Arabiyya that they lost communication Saturday night.
The head of 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.
HTS said their fighters broke into a jail on the outskirts of the capital, 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.
The rapid developments in Damascus come only hours after HTS said they had captured the strategic city of Homs, on the way to the capital.
The defence ministry earlier denied that rebels had entered Homs, describing the situation there as "safe and stable".
Homs lies about 140 kilometres (85 miles) from the capital and was the third major city seized by the rebels, who began their advance on November 27, reigniting a years-long war that had become largely dormant.
US President Joe Biden was keeping a close eye on the "extraordinary events" unfolding in Syria, the White House said.
Soldiers and police officers left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense.
“My feelings are indescribable,” said Omar Daher, a 29-year-old lawyer. “After the fear that he (Assad) and his father made us live in for many years, and the panic and state of terror that I was living in, I can’t believe it.”
Daher said his father was killed by security forces and his brother was in detention, his fate unknown. Assad “is a criminal, a tyrant and a dog,” he said.”
“Damn his soul and the soul of the entire Assad family,” said Ghazal al-Sharif, another reveler in central Damascus. “It is the prayer of every oppressed person and God answered it today. We thought we would never see it, but thank God, we saw it.”
Hezbollah fighters leave
Monitoring events in Damascus, the Britain-based Observatory confirmed "the doors of the infamous 'Sednaya' prison... have been opened for thousands of detainees who were imprisoned by the security apparatus throughout the regime's rule".
Assad's government had earlier denied the army had withdrawn from areas around Damascus.
Reports the president had fled were followed by the premier saying he was ready to "cooperate" with a new leadership and any handover process.
"This country can be a normal country that builds good relations with its neighbours and the world... but this issue is up to any leadership chosen by the Syrian people," Jalali said in a speech broadcast on his Facebook account.
Assad has for years been backed by Lebanese Hezbollah, whose forces "vacated their positions around Damascus" according to a source close to the group.
Soilders fled
Leading up to the rebels' entry into Damascus, the Islamist-led alliance had wrested away control of Aleppo and Hama and also reached Homs, known during the early years of the civil war as the "capital of the revolution".
The Observatory said Daraa, the cradle of the 2011 uprising, also fell from government control, while the army said it was "redeploying and repositioning" in the province and nearby Sweida.
The Observatory said troops were also evacuating posts in Quneitra, near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Jordan has urged its citizens to leave neighbouring Syria "as soon as possible", as have the United States and Assad ally Russia, which both keep troops in Syria.
An AFP correspondent in Daraa saw local fighters guarding public property and civil institutions.
An Iraqi security source told AFP that Baghdad had allowed in hundreds of Syrian soldiers, who "fled the front lines", through the Al-Qaim border crossing. A second source put the figure at 2,000 troops, including officers.
Syrians in Damascus trample on toppled statue of Assad's father
Syrians in the capital Damascus cheered on Sunday as they trampled on a toppled statue of President Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez, AFPTV images showed.
Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000, setting up a paranoid, brutal system of government that his son inherited. On Sunday, Islamist-led rebels declared Bashar al-Assad had fled the country following a lightning offensive that overran the country.