Syrian Rebels Claim Control over Damascus, Assad’s Whereabouts Unknown

Syrian rebels claimed early on December 8 to have taken control of the capital, Damascus after launching a lightning offensive in recent days that advanced quickly through the country.

Damascus was “now free of Assad,” the rebels said in a statement on social media.

The whereabouts of President Bashar al-Assad were not immediately known, though the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early on December 8. It did not say where Assad had flown to.

That report could not be confirmed but Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said in a video that the government is “ready to cooperate with any leadership chosen by the people.”

“We believe that Syria is for all Syrians and that it is the country of all its sons and that this country can be a normal state that builds good relations with its neighbors and the world without entering into any regional alliances and blocs,” al-Jalali said, adding he was still at home in Damascus and had not fled.

Abu Mohammad al-Golani, a leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group, had said late on December 7 that the insurgent fighters were “in the final moments of liberating” Homs, a city of 775,000 people.

HTS is considered a terrorist group by the United States, Britain, Canada, and the European Union.

Experts have said the fall of the Assad regime would also represent a major geopolitical setback for the Kremlin which, along with Tehran, has supported the Syrian government through many years of civil war.

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that “Assad regime forces have collapsed and Assad’s backers do not appear willing to bolster the Syrian Arab Army by rapidly deploying additional forces.”

Russia has multiple military sites in Syria, including an air base at Hmeimim and strategic naval facilities at Tartus, which are also used to support the Kremlin’s actions in Africa.

Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declined to comment on the fate of the Russian bases, saying he “wasn’t in the business of guessing.”

The ISW said that Moscow had not yet begun to evacuate the base, “but it remains unclear whether Russia will keep its vessels at the port as Syrian rebels continue to advance swiftly across regime-held territory.”

The U.S. State Department told RFE/RL late on December 7 that Washington was closely monitoring the situation on the ground in Syria.

A spokesperson said the United States and its partners and allies urged that civilians, including members of minority groups, be protected.

Before the rebel claim of capturing Damascus, reports said there were signs of panic in the capital, with shortages of critical supplies.

The surprising offensive was launched last week by a coalition of rebel groups led by the Islamist HTS faction.

The United Nations said on December 6 that almost 300,000 people in Syria had already been displaced since late November by the fighting, and that up to 1.5 million could be forced to flee as the rebels advance and inflict losses on Assad, as well as his Russian and Iranian allies.

Besides HTS, the fighters include forces of an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. Turkey has denied backing the offensive, though experts say insurgents would not have launched it without the country’s consent.

Assad has relied on Iran and Russia to remain in power since the conflict erupted in 2011.

Since the rebels seized control of Aleppo a week ago, they have moved on to capture other major cities with Assad’s forces providing little resistance.