End Of Era Of Tyranny”: Bashar Al-Assad Flees Syria As Rebels Move In

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who used chemical weapons multiple times on his population, has fled Syria after rebels stormed the capital city of Damascus

Syria has been embroiled in a bloody, 13-year civil war as Islamist rebels looked to overthrow the Assad dynasty. The apparent collapse of more than 50 years of Assad family rule over the Syrian Arabian Republic would be a monumental turning point in Middle East power politics.

The Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group said its forces were moving into Damascus. Soon after, they announced an “end of the era of tyranny in the prison of Sednaya” as the rebels broke into the jail that has become a symbol for the darkest abuses of the Syrian regime, AFP reported.

Earlier, the rebel group had said they had captured the strategic city of Homs, on the way to the capital. But the Syrian defence ministry had denied this and said the situation in Homs was “safe and stable”.

The Hezbollah, which backed the Assad regime for years, has asked its forces to withdraw. Hezbollah “has instructed its fighters in recent hours to withdraw from the Homs area, with some heading to Latakia (in Syria) and others to the Hermel area in Lebanon”, a source told AFP.

Residents of Damascus have told AFP that there was panic as traffic jams clogged the streets, people sought supplies and queued to withdraw money from ATMs. “The situation was not like this when I left my house this morning… suddenly everyone was scared,” said one woman, Rania. In a Damascus suburb, witnesses said protesters had toppled a statue of Assad’s father, the late leader Hafez al-Assad.