Syrians storm Bashar al-Assad’s presidential palace in Damascus as rebels declare the country is ‘free’
Syrians have stormed Bashar al-Assad’s presidential palace in Damascus as rebels declare that the country is ‘free’.
The opposition fighters reached the suburbs of the capital yesterday for the first time since the region was recaptured by government troops in 2018.
Syrian state television showed the rebels milling around inside the despot’s palace after he reportedly this morning fled on a plane to an unknown destination.
Military and intelligence officials are being quizzed by the rebel soldiers about al-Assad’s whereabouts as they try to pinpoint his movements.
The president hasn’t been seen or heard from since rebels stormed the capital city, according to CNN.
Following the capture of Damascus, the HTS (Hayyet Tahrir al-Sham) said on Telegram that it was the end of a dark era and the beginning of a new one.
The rebels said that people displaced or imprisoned under the half-century reign of Assad can now come home.
HTS said it will be a ‘new Syria’ where ‘everyone lives in peace and justice prevails’.
A statue of the late father of al-Assad in a main square in Jermana suburb, ten kilometres from the capital, has also been toppled.
