By Chris Summers
Contributing Writer
Rebels who seized the Syrian capital, Damascus, over the weekend are exerting control over the country as a fragile peace remains in place among various armed groups.
Russia has confirmed the former president, Bashar al-Assad, has been given sanctuary in Moscow, ending more than 50 years of rule by his family, and bringing to a close civil war that broke out during the so-called Arab Spring of 2011 and lasted 13 years.
Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, announced on his Telegram channel on Sunday that Assad — whose father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria from the early 1970s — had been given asylum in Moscow.
Assad, 59, appears to have fled Damascus on Saturday as rebels closed in on the city from at least two directions.
Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham, a Sunni Islamist group that remains designated as a terrorist organization by the United States as it began as a wing of al-Qaeda, advanced from the north after capturing in rapid succession the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs.
Another group, known as the Southern Operations Room, advanced into Damascus after first capturing Daraa in southern Syria, a city where the uprising against the Assad regime first broke out in April 2011.
Western governments have welcomed the fall of the Assads but U.S. President Joe Biden said Syria faced, “a moment of risk and uncertainty.”
The head of the HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has been trying to assuage concerns both inside and outside his country about his Islamist movement.
HTS Hail ‘Great Victory’
Al-Golani, speaking to a huge crowd in a central square in Damascus on Sunday, said, “A new history, my brothers, is being written in the entire region after this great victory.”
He said Syria would be “a beacon for the Islamic nation.”
Al-Golani was speaking outside the Umayyad Mosque, a place of great religious significance as it contains a shrine to Yahya ibn Zakariyya, better known to Christians as John the Baptist.
The Assad regime, led by the secular Ba’ath Party, was controlled by a small elite from the Alawite minority, and there were fears they might suffer violent retribution from the rebels, but there have been no reports of any such incidents in Damascus or in the Alawite homeland along the Syrian coast near Tartus.
Russia had a naval base at Tartus and an air base at Hmeimim in Latakia province but on Monday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to say what would happen to them.
Peskov said during a briefing: “It’s premature to talk about it yet. This is all a subject for discussion with those who will be in power in Syria.”
“Of course, everything is being done now that is necessary and everything that is possible in order to get in touch with those who can deal with security. And, of course, our military is also taking all necessary precautions,” he said.
Another ally of the Assad regime, Hezbollah, has reacted cautiously to the rebels taking Damascus. Hezbollah official Hassan Fadlallah said in a statement, “What is happening in Syria is a major, dangerous and new transformation, and how and why what happened requires an evaluation, and the evaluation is not done on the podiums.”
As the Kremlin and Hezbollah licked their wounds, hundreds of elated but confused inmates poured out of jails in Damascus over the weekend and many were reunited with their families.
Video footage on social media suggested many were oblivious to the dramatic fall of the Assad regime until their release.
Footage from one prison showed rebels liberating women from their cells and saying to them, “Don’t be afraid . . . Bashar Assad has fallen! Why are you afraid?”
Bashar Barhoum, a 63-year-old writer who had been in jail for seven months and thought he would be executed, said on Monday: “I haven’t seen the sun until today. Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, He gave me a new lease of life.”
But thousands of prisoners reportedly remain trapped underground at the notorious Saydnaya military prison, north of Damascus.
Thousands Trapped in Underground Prison
The White Helmets rescue organization said it had dispatched emergency teams to Saydnaya in an effort to gain entry to the so-called red cells, which are controlled by electronic locks that appear to have been locked or disabled by the Assad regime’s guards before they left.
Writing on X, it stated: “The White Helmets has deployed five specialized emergency teams to Sednaya [sic] prison to investigate hidden underground cells, reportedly holding detainees, according to survivors. The teams consist of search and rescue units, wall-breaching specialists, iron door-opening crews, trained dog units, and medical responders.”
The rebels have offered an amnesty to any former guard who returned to Saydnaya to assist with opening the cells, amid fears thousands of people trapped underground would suffocate due to a lack of oxygen.
Amnesty International and other groups said up to 13,000 Syrians were believed to have been executed at Saydnaya between 2011 and 2016.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara is ready to help rebuild Syria in coordination with all “regional actors and parties.”
Fidan said: “In the coming period, we want a Syria where different ethnic and religious groups live in an inclusive understanding of governance and in peace. We want to see a new Syria that has ties with its neighbors, that adds peace and stability to its region.”
“We will continue our work to ensure the safe and voluntary return of Syrians and for the country’s reconstruction,” Fidan said, as footage on social media suggests thousands of Syrian refugees have already begun heading across the border from Turkey.
The Syrian National Army, a faction backed by Turkey, appears to have clashed with the rival Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces in the city of Manbij in northern Syria.
Social media accounts loyal to the SNA and SDF both claim to be in control of the city.
Meanwhile, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, confirmed on Monday his country’s air force had bombed several military bases where it was suspected chemical weapons or long-range rockets were housed.
Saar said, “the only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens.”
“That’s why we attacked strategic weapons systems, like, for example, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists,” said Saar, who appeared keen to dampen fears Israel would seek to take advantage of the fall of Assad.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
