'Damascus free’, Syrian rebels declare; President Assad has allegedly fled
Rebels claim to have entered Damascus and taken control of notorious Saydnaya Military Prison; unconfirmed reports say planed carrying Bashar al-Assad crashed
Rebel forces in Syria have declared capital Damascus “free,” according to a CNN report. The rebels are further claiming that President Bashar al-Assad has fled the capital.
Unconfirmed reports said a plane carrying Assad crashed shortly after departing from Damascus.
“We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” the Military Operations Command wrote in a post on Telegram on Sunday (December 8), as quoted by CNN. “To the displaced all over the world, a free Syria awaits you.”
The rebels earlier claimed to have entered Damascus and taken control of the notorious Saydnaya Military Prison north of Damascus.
"We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice in Sednaya prison," the Syrian rebels said, as quoted by Reuters.
Amnesty International dubbed Saydnaya “the human slaughterhouse” in a 2017 report after extensively documenting mass hangings there.
In July 2023, a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke of the “continuing widespread and systematic patterns of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including enforced disappearances” inside Syrian detention facilities including Saydnaya.
Capture of Homs
The Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced last night that its forces had entered Homs, Syria's third-largest city, after the Syrian army reportedly began retreating to its outskirts.
The city, a critical link between Damascus and Assad's strongholds along the Mediterranean coast, appears to have fallen into rebel hands, said media reports.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani declared that his forces were "on the threshold of Homs and Damascus, and the toppling of the criminal regime is close."
In a coordinated offensive, opposition factions have also taken control of Sweida, a southwestern city with a predominantly Druze population, and Quneitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.