Bashar Al Assad toppled: How Syrian govt fell in a matter of days

It was the first time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital.

Syria's Bashar Al Assad government appears to have been toppled after rebel fighters claimed that they had entered the capital city of Damascus following a stunning advance

This screen grab taken from AFPTV shows people sitting on a tank as they gather at Umayyad Square in Damascus on December 8, 2024.(AFP)

A Syrian opposition war monitor reported that President Bashar Assad had left the country.

It proved to be a lightning-fast advance with the government falling in a matter of just days after the rebels first broke the Army lines in Aleppo.

A night before entering Damascus, the rebel forces had taken the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it.

The lightning offensive

The sheer speed of the rebel offensive took everyone by surprise. In a matter of just 24 hours, as many as four cities fell out of the Assad government’s control. These cities were Daraa, Quneitra, Suwayda and Homs.

The Turkish-backed Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) first broke through the defenses of Aleppo last week, gaining a major breakthrough after a sort of stalemate that had engulfed the war-torn country for years. While it was shocking, nobody still expected it to open the floodgates and achieve what the opposition in Syria has been trying to do since the Civil War broke out in 2011, toppling the Assad regime.

But the fall of Aleppo did exactly that and city after city fell to the rebels as they made their way to Damascus.

Early on Sunday, the rebel forces took over the Sednaya prison in the outskirts of Damascus to free all the prisoners. That was probably the signal that the five decade old rule of the Assad family was finally coming to an end.

It was the first time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a yearslong siege.

This time though, Damascus has apparently fallen with Bashar Al Assad nowhere to be seen. Reports suggest that he may have fled the country.

People celebrate at Umayyad Square in Damascus.(AFP)

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday. There was no immediate official statement from the Syrian government.

HTS has issued a statement saying that they had freed Damascus from Assad while also instructing their fighters to do no harm to the Public buildings in the city, which have been placed under former Prime Minister Ghazi al-Jalali for the time being.

Abu Mohamed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded the offensive.(AFP)

Jalali issued a statement earlier in the day saying that the government was ready to extend a hand to the opposition and handover the governance.

The rapidly developing events have shaken the region. Lebanon said it was closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for one that links Beirut with Damascus. Jordan closed a border crossing with Syria, too.