Assad’s ‘slaughterhouse’ prisons surrender their secrets and techniques: Syria rebels advance on infamous ‘industrial torture chamber’ the place as much as 13,000 prisoners had been executed – as pro-regime troops flee Homs

Syrians have pleaded for their loves ones to be freed from the notorious ‘slaughterhouse’ prison of Saydnaya after rebels freed thousands of detainees elsewhere in Homs.

The military prison near Damascus dubbed the ‘industrial torture chamber ‘ has reportedly seen between 5,000 to 13,000 inmates hanged since 2011, according to AlJazeera. 

Amnesty International research said the Syrian authorities had committed crimes against humanity with thousands of inmates in the prison 30km north of Damascus being murdered, tortured, and exterminated. 

They determined that the violations committed at the brutal facilities over the last decade under dictator’s Bashar al Assad regime, which has seen over 10,000 political detainees vanish, was part of an attack against civilians. 

Thousands poured into the streets of Homs tonight as pro-regime troops fled, with rebels freeing thousands of detainees from the city prison as security forces left in haste after burning their documents. 

Assad previously denied both killing thousands of detainees at Saydnaya as well as using a secret crematorium to dispose of their remains in 2017. 

He also branded the allegations by the US State Department of up to 50 people being hanged daily at the brutal military prison as ‘a new Hollywood story detached from reality’.

Now as rebels edge closer to Damascus, many Syrians are hopeful they will liberate the ‘industrial torture chamber’ which is famed for its inhumane conditions, systematic torture and mass executions. 

Journalist Samer Daboul, whose uncle was taken into custody for smuggling bread and vanished behind the prison walls in 2012, eagerly awaits news regarding the man who was ‘one of the most influential people in his life’ 

‘He taught me about Syria’s history, the revolution, and why it was necessary,’ he told the BBC. 

‘I want him to know that the young man he inspired 12 years ago is now a journalist reporting on Syria. I want him to be proud of me.’

Several have taken to social media to encourage the rebels to reach the notoriously cruel prison and liberate its inmates, while others hope their relatives, who they have not seen or heard from – some in years – are still alive. 

Intense sounds of shooting were heard in the centre of the Syrian capital Damascus, two residents said on Sunday as rebels make their way towards the capital.

It was not immediately clear where was the source of the shooting, two residents who live in a residential area close to the centre of the capital said. 

It comes as Syrian government forces abandoned the key city of Homs after less than a day of fighting, leaving Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread with insurgents also advancing towards the capital Damascus.

Pro-regime troops fled the city of Homs with thousands of residents dancing and chanting ‘Assad is gone, Homs is free’ and ‘Long live Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad’.

It comes shortly after Assad was mocked after rebels unearthed a photo of the Syrian president wearing nothing but a tiny pair of Speedos.

Following a lightning rebel advance in Syria last week, Jihadi rebels came across a photo of the Syrian leader scantily clad as a young man.

The image shows the dictator posing alongside three other people in swimsuits as they are perched on the side of a boat in the night.

The picture quickly gained attention on social media, with one person writing: ‘A picture found in the palace of the idiot and criminal Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo.’

The funny reaction online comes amid reports from Western officials that Assad’s government could fall within the next week.

Rebels fired into the air in celebration as they took control of Homs, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial control has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the military.

The fall of Homs and threat to the capital pose an immediate existential danger to the Assad dynasty’s five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran.

Homs’ capture is also a powerful symbol of the rebel movement’s dramatic comeback in the 13-year-old conflict. 

Swathes of Homs were destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the army years ago.

The most powerful insurgent leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the main rebel leader, called the capture of Homs a historic moment and urged fighters not to harm ‘those who drop their arms’.

Mohammed al-Golani, also said in a separate statement that rebels were on the cusp of taking the whole country and ‘the end of the criminal regime is near’. 

The battle for control of the country is likely to turn quickly to the capital. Residents of numerous Damascus districts turned out to protest Assad on Saturday evening, and security forces were either unwilling or unable to clamp down.

Assad’s government may be on the verge of collapse, foreign officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. One U.S. official put the potential timeframe at five to 10 days while another said Assad could be ousted in the coming week. A Western official agreed with the latter assessment. 

Since the rebels’ sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled at dizzying speed as rebels seized a string of major cities and reignited a rebellion in places it had long seemed dead.

Seizing Homs, an important crossroads between the capital and the Mediterranean, effectively cuts off Damascus from the coastal stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, and from Russia’s air and naval base.

The Syrian army and security commanders left Homs on Saturday by helicopter for the coast while a large military convoy withdrew by land, a senior army officer said. Rebels said they were entering the city centre.

Earlier on Saturday, it was reported that Syrian opposition fighters reached the suburbs of the Damascus capital for the first time since the region was recaptured by government troops in 2018, as Assad’s regime nears collapse.

One resident said the city was on edge, with security forces on the streets and many shops running out of staple foods.

The Syrian army withdrew from much of the country’s south on Saturday but later said it was fortifying positions in the Damascus suburbs and in the south.

Syria’s state news agency denied reports that Assad had already fled to Russia claiming he continued to govern from Damascus.

However, following the statement claiming it was ‘false news’, a source has told CNN that Assad was ‘nowhere to be found’ at his usual residences in the capital.

Lebanon said it is closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for a main one that links Beirut with Damascus. Jordan closed a border crossing with Syria because of the security situation on the Syrian side.

The rapidly developing events in Syria have again put the region on edge.

Government forces reportedly withdrew as rebel groups amassed in the city’s suburbs, wrestling for control after more than a week of intensified fighting.

Armed groups reached the suburb of Darayya on Saturday afternoon, some five miles from the centre, according to the Turkish Anadolu Agency.

‘Our forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital, Damascus,’ said rebel commander Hassan Abdel Ghani today, with the Islamist-led alliance that launched the offensive 10 days ago.

‘Damascus awaits you,’ HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said in a statement Saturday addressed to rebel fighters on Telegram.

Syrians still in the nominally government-controlled territory of Jaramana seized the opportunity to pull down a statue of Assad’s father as the regime faces collapse.

To the north, rebel troops made a lunge towards the strategic city of Homs, just days after they proclaimed a major victory in the taking of the city of Hama on Thursday.

The staggering assault has seen rebels opposed to the regime make the fastest battlefield advance by either side since the civil war began almost 13 years ago.

Assad’s office said today that the President was staying put in the capital and continuing his duties after his children and British-born wife fled to Russia last week, and his brothers-in-law allegedly travelled to the UAE, per Syrian security officials.

Assad’s allies in Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, distracted or worn-down by other conflicts, meanwhile showed no signs of intervening.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told CNN that Turkey wishes that neighbouring Syria can ‘quickly attain the peace and tranquillity it has longed for’ during 13 years of civil conflict.

He said: ‘I want to say this openly: We do not have our eyes on land — not even a pebble — that belongs to another country.’

Charles Lister, director of the Syria and countering terrorism and extremism programs at the Middle East Institute, told Bloomberg that Assad’s future has ‘never looked more fragile’ as the opposition encroaches on Homs and allied support withers.

While capturing Homs could close the land route between the government and Tartus, home to Russia’s only Mediterranean port, Russia appears not to be in a position to help Assad regain ground with focus and resources directed to Ukraine.

‘Russia doesn’t have a plan to save Assad and doesn’t see one emerging as long as the Syrian president’s army continues to abandon its positions,’ a source ‘close to the Kremlin’ told Bloomberg.

Iran, likewise, has been hesitant, or unable, to funnel its support to Syria. On Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he would would only help Assad ‘to the extent necessary’, but previously promised to ‘consider’ sending troops.

The capture of Hama has given rebel forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), control of a strategic central city they never managed to seize before.

Jihad Yazigi, editor of the Syria Report newsletter previously told Reuters: ‘Assad now cannot afford to lose anything else. The big battle is the one coming against Homs. If Homs falls, we are talking of a potential change of regime.’

It follows a staggering effort to seize Aleppo, the main northern city in Syria, last week as part of a blitz offensive beginning on November 27.