President Bashar Assad’s ironclad grip on power in Syria was broken today after rebel forces launched a rapid offensive that saw them breaching the capital within 10 days.
Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying that Assad has been overthrown and all detainees in jails have been set free. It brings to an end the 50-year rule of the Assad family.
The statement read on air said that the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus, a dissident coalition, is urging all fighters and civilians to protect the structures of “the free Syrian state.”
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The announcement came shortly after the director of an opposition war monitoring group disclosed that Assad had fled Syria to an undetermined location as insurgents claimed they’d penetrated Damascus following their surprisingly fast march through national territory.
There are also reports that the airport in Damascus has been abandoned. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and turn its functions over to a transitional government.
“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalili said in a video statement.
He said he would go to his office to continue work in the morning and called on Syrian citizens not to deface public property.
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