Syrian rebels say they’ve captured capital as Bashar al-Assad reported to have fled Damascus – stay updates

Welcome again to our stay protection of the insurgent offensive that appears to have been profitable in toppling the Syrian authorities, led by longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Listed here are the most recent developments:

• Insurgent forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, in Damascus have declared the Syrian capital “free” of Assad as authorities forces withdraw their presence.

• Within the capital’s central sq., individuals climbed on high of tanks and cheered as they trampled on a toppled statue of Assad’s father, Hafez.

• The Syrian insurgent coalition stated it’s persevering with work to finish the switch of energy in Syria to a transitional governing physique with full government powers.

• Syrian prime minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali stated the federal government is able to “lengthen 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 stated.

• Syria’s military command notified officers on Sunday that Assad’s regime had ended, Reuters is reporting. However the Syrian military later stated it was persevering with operations in opposition to “terrorist teams” in the important thing cities of Hama and Homs and in Deraa countryside.

• Assad, who has dominated the nation for almost 25 years, has reportedly left Damascus by aircraft for an unknown vacation spot.

• US president-elect Donald Trump stated on Sunday that Assad had “fled his nation” after shedding the backing of Russia. “Assad is gone,” he stated on his Fact Social platform. “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not taken with defending him any longer.”

• Outgoing US President Joe Biden and his group have been monitoring the “extraordinary occasions in Syria” and have been in contact with regional companions, the White Home stated.

• As armed rebels swept cities throughout the nation, they flung open detention services the place rights teams estimated that not less than 100,000 individuals have been thought of lacking or forcibly disappeared since 2011 by the hands of the state. This included the Sednaya army jail, a facility infamous as the positioning of notably brutal and humiliating strategies of torture.

• Iraq has reportedly evacuated its embassy in Syria and moved workers to Lebanon, hours after rebels overthrew Assad and took management of the capital. Causes behind the evacuation weren’t made public.