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Syrian rebels storm into Damascus, claim Assad has fled

Syrian rebels storm into Damascus, claim Assad has fled

by host

On Friday, the Syrian army confirmed it had lost control of the strategic city of Hama to the rebels, an al Qaeda breakaway called Tahrir al-Sham. The rebels seized Syria’s largest city of Aleppo late last month in an effective offensive, forcing government forces to withdraw.

Statues of Assad’s father and brother were toppled in now rebel-held cities, as well as in Damascus suburbs. 

Assad had been in power for 25 years and his family ruled Syria for more than half a century. His Iran- and Russia-allied regime brutally curtailed human rights, deploying chemical weapons against civilians as part of the civil war that has raged in the country since 2011.

The fast-moving rebel insurgency put two of Russia’s strategic military assets — an airbase in the Latakia province and a naval facility in Tartus on the Mediterranean near the Lebanese border — under serious threat, Reuters reported on Saturday. Satellite imagery showed ships have been leaving the Tartus naval base for several days.

The Russian Embassy in Damascus advised Russian citizens to leave Syria “in the light of the difficult military and political situation.”

The foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran reportedly met in Doha and agreed on the necessity to put an immediate end to “hostilities” in Syria, according to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Russians getting pushed out of Syria was  “the best thing that can happen to them” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

This story is being updated.

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