Amid the increasing speculation about the whereabouts of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family, Russian media has reported that they have arrived in Russia. It has also been reported that Assad and his family sought asylum in Russia, which they have been granted by the Russian government. Assad fled to Russia leaving behind a government before the Syrian rebels took over Syria’s capital city Damascus on Sunday.
Amid increasing speculation about the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family, Russian media has reported that they have arrived in Russia. Assad and his family sought and were granted asylum by the Russian government. According to the media reports, Assad and his family have been granted asylum by the Russian authorities on “humanitarian grounds” in Moscow. Meanwhile, a shocking advance by rebel forces that took control of Damascus, has also marked the end of Assad’s 50 years of power in Syria. Rebels have been fighting against Assad’s government for nearly 14 years.
These reports couldn’t be confirmed immediately, but Russia’s government requested an emergency meeting of the UN to discuss the situation in Syria, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky posted on Telegram. Meanwhile, the reports of Assad’s departure were celebrated across Damascus, with many people taking to the streets to celebrate the end of Assad’s tyrant regime. Residents waved the Syrian revolutionary flag and fired guns in the air. Some even broke into the presidential palace and took items from inside.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a former Al-Qaida commander who cut ties with the group years ago and says he embraces pluralism and religious tolerance, leads the biggest rebel faction and is poised to chart the country’s future. In his first public appearance since fighters entered the Damascus suburbs Saturday, al-Golani visited the Umayyad Mosque and called Assad’s fall “a victory to the Islamic nation.” Calling himself by his given name, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and not his nom de guerre, he told hundreds of people that Assad had made Syria “a farm for Iran’s greed.”
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