President Bashar al-Assad has fled Syria as rebel forces captured Damascus, the nation’s capital, on Sunday.
According to two senior army officers who spoke to Reuters, Assad boarded a plane and left Damascus for an undisclosed destination after the rebel forces declared victory.
A viral video from Damascus showed a man climbing atop a hospital sign to tear down a poster of Assad. Elsewhere in the city’s central square, residents were seen celebrating atop military tanks.
The rebel forces, in a statement, announced the release of prisoners from the infamous Sednaya prison and promised a brighter future for the war-torn nation.
“We turn the page on the dark past and open a new horizon for the future of Syria,” the insurgents declared.
However, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, in a televised statement, claimed he remained in his home and expressed willingness to collaborate with the opposition on a transitional government.
“I am in my house and I have not left, because of my belonging to this country,” al-Jalali said, though he did not address Assad’s current location.
The developments signal the potential end of more than five decades of rule by the Assad family.
“Today is the end of 54 years of Assad family reign in Syria,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American physician and humanitarian.
He added, “This is the only regime I have known my entire life. It has been 14 long years of horror. This is our Berlin Wall moment.”
The Assad dynasty began in 1971 when Hafez al-Assad seized power in a military coup.
Bashar al-Assad assumed the presidency in 2000, continuing his father’s legacy of authoritarian rule bolstered by a powerful security apparatus that stifled dissent and enforced control through surveillance and detention.
Bashar al-Assad’s regime faced its first major challenge in 2011 when peaceful protests demanding reform escalated into a nationwide uprising.
The civil war that followed is estimated to have claimed over 300,000 lives and displaced millions, leaving a trail of destruction and despair across Syria.