Syrians awakened on Monday to a mix of hope and uncertainty after rebels captured Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, ending a 13-year civil war and over 50 years of the al-Assad family’s brutal rule.
The rapid advance of Hayat al-Tahir al-Shams (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, marked a key turning point in the region as Assad’s departure weakened Iran and Russia’s influence in the Arab world.
Moscow gave asylum to Assad and his family, Russian media reported and Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
International governments welcomed the end of Assad’s autocratic government, as they sought to take stock of a new-look Middle East.
United States President Joe Biden said Syria is in a period of risk and uncertainty, and it is the first time in years that neither Russia, Iran, nor the Hezbollah organization held an influential role there.
HTS is still designated as a terrorist group by the US, Turkey, and the United Nations, although it has spent years trying to soften its image to reassure international governments and minority groups within Syria.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said on Monday Tokyo was paying close attention to developments in Syria.
Assad’s overthrow limits Iran’s ability to spread weapons to its allies and could cost Russia its Mediterranean naval base. It could also allow millions of refugees scattered for more than a decade in camps across Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan to return home finally.
The rebels face a monumental task of rebuilding and running a country after a war that left hundreds of thousands dead, cities pounded to dust, and an economy hollowed by global sanctions. Syria will need billions of dollars in aid.
“A new history, my brothers, is being written in the entire region after this great victory,” said Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the head of HTS.
Speaking to a huge crowd on Sunday at Damascus’ Umayyad Mosque, a place of enormous religious significance, Golani said with hard work Syria would be “a beacon for the Islamic nation.”
The Assad police state was known as one of the harshest in the Middle East with hundreds of thousands of political prisoners held in horrifying conditions.
On Sunday, elated but often confused inmates poured out of jails. Reunited families wept in joy. Newly freed prisoners were filmed running through the Damascus streets holding up their hands to show how many years they had been in prison.
The White Helmets rescue organization said it had dispatched emergency teams to search for hidden underground cells still believed to hold detainees.
With a curfew declared by the rebels, Damascus was calm overnight, with roads leading into the city mostly empty. One shopping center had been looted on Sunday, and some people rampaged inside Assad’s presidential place, leaving carrying furniture.
The rebel coalition said it was working to complete the transfer of power to a transitional governing body with executive powers, referring to building “a Syria together.”
Golani is a Sunni Muslim, which is the majority in Syria, but the country is home to a wide range of religious sects, including Christians and Assad’s fellow Alawites, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
The pace of events stunned world capitals and raised concerns about more regional instability on top of the ongoing crises in the Middle East.
The US Central Command said its forces conducted dozens of airstrikes targeting known Daesh camps and operatives in central Syria on Sunday.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Sunday he spoke with Turkish Minister of National Defense Yasar Guler, emphasizing the importance of protecting civilians and that the US is watching closely.
During Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad, his forces and their Russian allies bombed cities to rubble. The refugee crisis across the Middle East was one of the biggest of modern times and caused a political reckoning in Europe when a million people arrived in 2015.
In recent years, Turkey had backed some rebels in a small redoubt in the northwest and along its border. The US, which has about 900 troops in Syria, backed a Kurdish-led alliance that fought Daesh fighters from 2014-2017.
