Syrian rebels say Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus and claim to have captured capital – live updates | Middle East and north Africa

Syrian state TV has broadcast a video from Syria’s rebel factions saying President Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown and all jail detainees freed.

In their first televised announcement since their rapid and surprise offensive, they called on all opposition fighters and citizens to preserve state institutions of “the free Syrian state”.

In another symbolic moment, people in Damascus have trampled upon the fallen statue of Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, who ruled the country with an iron fist for nearly 30 years.

The Guardian’s Ruth Michaelson has the full report on the extraordinary turn of events in Syria, and what looks like the end of an era for the Assad regime.

“Today is the end of 54 years of the reign of Assad family in Syria. This is the only regime I knew all of my life,” said doctor Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American physician who organised medical missions into Syria, including hospitals in Aleppo that were targeted by Syrian and Russian airstrikes.

“I don’t cry often in my adult life but today I did. It has been fourteen long years of horror. This is our Berlin Wall moment,” he said.

The fall of the Assad regime is momentous for Syria.

President Assad had been clinging to power for 14 years as the country fragmented amid a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers.

As the Associated Press writes, his downfall is in stark contrast to his first months as Syria’s unlikely president in 2000, when many hoped he would be a young reformer after three decades of his father’s strongman rule.

The Western-educated ophthalmologist, then only 34, was a rather geeky, tech-savvy fan of computers with a gentle demeanor.

But when faced with protests against his rule that erupted in March 2011, Assad turned to the brutal tactics of his father in an attempt to crush them.

As the uprising hemorrhaged into an outright civil war, writes the AP, he unleashed his military to blast opposition-held cities, with support from allies Iran and Russia.

International rights groups and prosecutors alleged widespread use of torture and extrajudicial executions in Syria‘s government-run detention centers.

The Syrian war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. As the uprising spiralled into a civil war, millions of Syrians fled across the borders into Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon and on to Europe.

We are now hearing from people in the capital who are rejoicing the apparent end of the Assad regime.

“My feelings are indescribable,” Omar Daher, a 29-year-old lawyer told Associated Press. “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.

Crowds of Syrians gathered to celebrate in the central squares of Damascus, chanting anti-Assad slogans and honking car horns. In some areas, celebratory gunshots rang out.

“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.”

Syria’s White Helmets civil defence forces has released a statement about the extraordinary events of the past few days, writes the Guardian’s Faisal Ali.

“The sun of freedom rises on the Syrians… the moment that has been long awaited for years… even decades… Syria, the homeland, is writing history today,” the group said in a video statement posted on X.

“Syria is on the path to justice… today is the day of work and construction.”

A jubilant mood on the streets of Damascus at dawn, hours after a coalition of Islamist-led rebels claimed to have taken over the capital.

An incredible shot here.

The celebrations continue.

Dawn is breaking over the Syrian capital Damascus after an extraordinary sequence of events.

Television footage showed rebels in fatigues firing celebratory rounds into the sky, and yelling “Allah Akbar” hours after Islamist rebels claimed control of the city, and amid reports President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country to an unknown location.

On the streets people climbed on tanks to chant and gathered to celebrate.

In a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family, the Syrian government appears to have fallen.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said in a video statement that the government is ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government.

“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalili said, as reported by the Associated Press.

He said he would go to his office to continue work in the morning and called on Syrian citizens not to deface public property.

He did not address reports that President Bashar Assad has left the country.

There was no immediate comment from the United Arab Emirates on Assad’s whereabouts. Assad’s family has extensive real estate holdings in Dubai.

Rebels in Syria have announced a new era in Syria after 50 years of Baath rule.

“After 50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and (forced) displacement… we announce today, 12-8-2024, the end of this dark period and the start of a new era for Syria.”

Syria’s army command has notified officers that President Bashar al-Assad’s rule has ended following a lightning rebel offensive, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters.

Assad reportedly flew out of Damascus on Sunday for an unknown destination, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.

Syrian rebels said Damascus was “now free of Assad”.

Meanwhile, Syrian prime minister, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, said on Sunday that he remained at home and was ready to support continuity of governance.

On the streets of the capital, thousands in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting “Freedom”, witnesses said.

Syrian rebels claim to have captured the capital of Damascus, announcing the fall of the al-Assad regime, according to reports by Reuters and Al Jazeera.

“The tyrant Bashar al-Assad has fled,” the armed opposition said in a statement. “We declare Damascus free of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad had left of the country, after losing swathes of territory to a lightning rebel offensive.

A lot has changed in 24 hours.

In the city of Homs, a statue of Assad’s father was symbolically torn down, after insurgents claimed control of the city.

Thousands took the streets amid rounds of celebratory gunfire.

The rapid advance of the coalition of rebel groups led by HTS has stunned not only observers and regional powers but also, it appears, the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Syrian rebels entered the capital Damascus and the whereabouts of the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, are unknown.

Reuters reported that he left the country for an unknown location. A war monitor has also confirmed that Assad has left.

Meanwhile footage from the airport in Damascus show people chaotically streaming in.

For those catching up on the lightning offensive in Syria led by the armed Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former branch of al-Qaida, here is a look at its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who has been described as a “pragmatic radical”.

Since breaking ties with Al-Qaida in 2016, Jolani has sought to portray himself as a more moderate leader. But he is yet to quell suspicions among analysts and western governments that still class HTS as a terrorist organisation.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly left Damascus, boarding a plane for an unknown location, according to Reuters news, citing two senior Syrian officers familiar with the incident.

The Guardian was unable to independently confirm the report.

As the Guardian’s Ruth Michaelson writes, the Syrian president has not been seen publicly for days, despite reassurances from the presidency that he was working and remained in Damascus just a few hours ago.

Assad did not publicly address the Syrian people or his troops even as the insurgents advanced toward Damascus, and questions begun to mount about his whereabouts.

Assad’s last appearance was a week ago, during an urgent meeting with the Iranian foreign minister in Damascus. The Syrian leader was pictured grinning despite the insurgents taking control of Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria only a day earlier.

Syria’s armed opposition meanwhile say they have taken control of the radio and television building in the centre of Damascus, as per Al Jazeera.

Rebel forces have entered the capital, Damascus, writes Guardian reporter Ruth Michaelson.

Video circulating online shows Syrian army forces removing their uniforms in the streets of the capital.

In a second post, the insurgents announced that they have begun freeing detainees from Sednaya prison, a notorious detention facility near Damascus.

Sednaya is considered a symbol of the Assad regime’s brutality, a place where tens of thousands of opponents of Assad’s rule have suffered extreme torture and abuse. The prison has been referred to over the years as a “human slaughterhouse”.

Here is what Amnesty International say about the facility:

Saydnaya Military Prison is located 30km north of Damascus, Syria. The prison is under the jurisdiction of the minister of defence and operated by the military police. Saydnaya became notorious for the use of torture and excessive force following a riot by detainees in 2008. There are two buildings on the Saydnaya site, which between them could contain 10,000-20,000 prisoners.

Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria in 2011, the prison has become the final destination for both peaceful opponents of the authorities as well as military personnel suspected of opposing the regime.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the Syrian army, and security forces, have left for Damascus International Airport, according to sources from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hours after Syrian rebels claimed full control of the key city of Homs and continued their march to the capital, intense sounds of shooting have been heard in the centre of Damascus, residents have said.

The source of the shooting was not immediately clear, two residents who live in a residential area close to the centre of the capital said, as reported by Reuters.

Rebel advancements in the past 24 hours have left President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread.