Syria opposition forces have declared that the 24-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad has come to an end, hours after fighters entered the capital, Damascus, following a lightning advance across the country.
In a statement broadcast live on Syrian national television on Sunday, a group of fighters said the “tyrant al-Assad has been toppled” and that all prisoners have been freed from a major prison facility in Damascus.
“The city of Damascus has been liberated. The tyrant Bashar al-Assad has been toppled. All the prisoners have been released from the prison of Damascus,” a leader of the group said.
“We wish all our fighters and citizens preserve and maintain the property of the state of Syria. Long live Syria,” he added.
The opposition said al-Assad, whose family ruled Syria for more than 50 years, had fled the capital. His whereabouts remain unknown.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry later said Assad had resigned from the presidency and left Syria without saying where to.
In a video statement, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and turn its functions over to a transitional government.
“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” al-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.
At the same time, Abu Mohamed al-Julani, head of the main fighting group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has ordered opposition fighters to not attack any public institutions and services.
An elderly woman celebrates at Umayyad Square in Damascus after opposition fighters declared that the city of Damascus was ‘liberated’ [Louai Beshara/AFP]
Exclusive footage captured by Al Jazeera showed the opposition fighters entering the presidential palace in Damascus. Videos posted online also showed residents taking down images of the president.
“The fall of the Assad regime is the end of an era in the Middle East, and it will have big news implications across the region,” said Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh.
The armed opposition also shared a video that it says was taken by its fighters from the strategic Mezzeh airbase in Damascus. The site played a crucial role in launching government rocket attacks and air raids against opposition-held territory.
Earlier on Sunday, fighters entered the heart of the capital, announcing a “new era” free of revenge and inviting Syrians overseas to return. Opposition forces had already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama, as well as large parts of the south, in a lightning offensive that began on November 27.
Hadi al-Bahra, who heads the Syrian political opposition coalition overseas, declared Damascus “free of al-Assad” and congratulated the Syrian people.
Fighters released the prisoners held in Sednaya Prison north of Damascus, as they have done in other cities they took during their advance.
Later on Sunday, the opposition declared a curfew in Damascus from 4pm (13:00 GMT) until 5am (02:00 GMT).
Celebrations of ‘freedom’
Witnesses reported jubilation in the capital, with chants of “Freedom! Freedom!” heard in a main square.
Omar Horanieh, a resident of the capital, told Al Jazeera that before opposition fighters entered the city, he heard loud blasts and sounds of shooting.
He said once the fighters entered the city, “everyone was shouting God is the greatest”.
Celebrations were also reported in the city of Latakia as well as along the border with Lebanon.
Reporting from the border, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said while “a lot of uncertainties lie ahead”, Syrian refugees are looking forward to “return to their homes”.
“It is about returning to their families, whom they have been separated from for such a long time,” she said.
Meanwhile, in the opposition stronghold of Aleppo, residents toppled a statue of the former president, late Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian opposition groups’ Administration of Military Affairs also said its forces are advancing in the western Deir Az Zor countryside.
The Syrian war started as a largely unarmed uprising against al-Assad in March 2011, but morphed into a full-blown war that dragged in foreign powers, killed hundreds of thousands of people and turned millions into refugees.
James Dorsey, a Middle East specialist, said the Syrian military’s collapse was “always a question of when, not if”.
“It simply shows us how on brittle the support for al-Assad regime’s was, and also how brittle Syrian military was,” he said.
“If you don’t have a national military on the ground to defend the regime, then there’s really very little that the Iranians or the Russians could have done, short of virtually occupying the country,” he said, referring to Assad’s main backers.
Dorsey said al-Assad framed the war as one against “terrorists” and “systematically sabotaged any attempt to have a peaceful process in which there would be reform of the Syrian political system.
“People were forced into the military and often not paid properly and not compensated properly. So the fact that they would ultimately jump ship or not put their lives on the on line for a regime that wasn’t catering to their needs is not really a surprise.”
∎