Ferraris, Porsches and more: Bashar al- Assad's luxury cars found in his ransacked palace
Videos doing rounds on social media show a group touring the garage that was brimming with high-end cars.
The rebels storming the palace of ousted Syrian President Bashar Al Assad found a fleet of luxury cars in a massive garage.
Videos doing rounds on social media show a group touring the garage that was brimming with high-end cars like Ferraris, Audis, Porsches and Mercedes, among others. All this is from Assad’s private collection.
The rebels also found SUVs, ATVs, motorcycles and even an armoured truck.
HT cannot independently verify these videos.
Looters took away everything they could while the people celebrated the end of the regime that had ruled over them for five decades.
According to the New York Post, the sprawling mansion stands at a hilltop on the outskirts of the capital city of Damascus. The rebels stormed the city and the palace on Monday after winning city after city against the retreating Syrian Army.
The looters also took away furniture, artworks and anything of value that they could find. Luxury bags and clothes were also reportedly hauled away by men and women alike.
The fall of Bashar Al Assad
The Syrian Civil War started as an offshoot of the Arab Spring in 2011. While initially the Bashar Al Assad regime looked poised for a fall, the entry of Russia and Iran in defence turned the tide in his favour, prolonging the war for more than a decade.
The rebels last reached Damascus in 2018 but the Syrian Army loyal to its president won back most of the territories with the help of its allies.
With Russia and Iran stretched with the conflicts now in Ukraine and the Middle East respectively, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) launched a surprisingly speedy offensive against Assad. They broke through and took Aleppo last week before marching to Damascus.
As many as four cities, including Home, fell in the last 24 hours before the rebels reached the capital early on Monday. They released the prisoners at the Saydnaya prison and stormed the city.
Bashar Al Assad fled before the rebels could reach him. According to reports, he has got political asylum in Russia.
Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al Jalali said that the government was ready to cooperate with the opposition and hand over the governance. HTS put him in charge of the state buildings till the official handover and forbade its fighters from doing them any harm.