Bashar al-Assad has “stepped down” as president and “left Syria”

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Bashar al-Assad has “stepped down” as president and “left Syria”, his ally Russia says, hours after rebel forces took control of the capital Damascus.

The Russian foreign ministry gave no further details about Assad’s whereabouts, but it was the first official statement saying he had fled the country.

Assad has not been pictured since he met Iranian foreign minister in Damascus a week ago. That day, he vowed to “crush” the rebels seizing territory with dizzying speed.

Early on Sunday morning, after their fighters entered the city without resistance, the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies declared that “the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has fled”.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, also reported that a plane believed to be carrying Assad “left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left” the facility. Rami Abdul Rahman said he had information that the plane was meant to take off at 22:00 (20:00 GMT) on Saturday.

The Flightradar24 website did not record a departure around that time, although a Cham Wings Airlines Airbus A320 passenger plane did leave at around 00:56 on Sunday bound for Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The plane landed in Sharjah on time. But a diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates told reporters in Bahrain that he did not know if Assad was in the UAE.

Reuters news agency meanwhile cited two unnamed senior Syrian army officers as saying that Assad had boarded a Syrian Air plane at Damascus airport early on Sunday.

It noted that a Syrian Air Ilyushin Il-76T cargo plane took off from the airport at 03:59 local time (01:59 GMT) with an undisclosed destination.

According to data from Flightradar24, the plane initially flew east away from the capital before turning to the north-west and heading towards the Mediterranean coast, which is a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect and is also home to Russian naval and air bases.

After flying over the central city of Homs – which fell to the rebels on Saturday night – at an altitude of 20,000ft (6,095m) the plane made a U-turn and started flying eastwards again while also losing altitude.

The plane’s transponder signal was lost at around 04:39 (02:39 GMT), when it was about 13km (8 miles) west of Homs and flying at an altitude 1,625ft (495m).

Flightradar24 said in a post on X that the aircraft “was old with an older transponder generation, so some data might be bad or missing”, that it was “flying in an area of GPS jamming, so some data might be bad”, and that there was not aware of any airports in the area where the signal was lost.

There have not been any reports of a plane crash in the same area.

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4 COMMENTS

  2. WILL OF THE PEOPLE

    When ‘Dictators’ electorally positioned to:

    (a) ‘…Govern by the ‘WILL OF The People:

    (b) …Build Dynasties against their ‘WILL: then

    (c) …Ruled with ‘IRON FISTS:’

    Then, as a ‘…LAST RESORT AGAINST:

    (1) ‘…TYRANNY: and

    (2) …OPPRESSION:’

    As provided in the ‘…UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS’ [DECEMBER 10, 1948]. This allows for ‘…REBELLION:’ ALMOST ’76-YEARS AGO.’

    Then by whatever ‘…WAYS or MEANS NECESSARY,’ they ‘…FALL FROM THE PEOPLE’S GRACE,’ if only accessible by ‘…ENGRAVED PAVEMENT PICTURES,’ there may be no better ‘…WAY AND PLACE TO STEP ON THEIR FACES.’

    VEX OR NO VEX – END OF TEXT.

  3. Funded and militarily trained by NATO & Tükiye,
    a derivative of ISIS & Al Queda rebranded as “Rebels” have taken control of Syria — weakening the “axis of resistance.” Was this ouster in service of the Syrian people; or was it a strategic move against Iran & Russia?
    Unfortunately for Syrians, no lessons were learned from the fall of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein & Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Are the citizens of these countries better off since the toppling of their leaders? Will Syria’s sanctions gets lifted now? Who will become the actual beneficiaries from destabilizing the Middle East?

    https://youtube.com/shorts/TmHH7n-BK5U?si=KdGc-eQ1PZFVH6jy

    • Israel has already invaded part of Syria to colonize the region, genocide arabs and create the “great Israel”. The “hidden hand” that leverages ISIS is not that hidden!

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