Even with the Assad family out of the picture, it appears that Ankara’s position won’t change, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s landmark visit to Syria maintaining a strong position on the Kurdish-led group in his meeting with de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa of HTS. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Tuesday (December 24, 2024) that they have launched a counter-offensive against the Ankara-backed Syrian National Army to take back areas near Syria’s northern border with Turkiye.

The SDF is Washington’s critical ally in Syria, targeting sleeper cells of the extremist Islamic State group scattered across the country’s east.

Since the fall of the totalitarian rule of Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, clashes have intensified between the U.S.-backed group and the SNA, which captured the key city of Manbij and the areas surrounding it.

The intense weekslong clashes come at a time when Syria, battered by over a decade of war and economic misery, negotiates its political future following half a century under the Assad dynasty’s rule.

Ruken Jamal, spokesperson of the Women’s Protection Unit, or YPJ, under the SDF, said that their fighters are just over seven miles away from the center of Manbij in their ongoing counter-offensive.

She accused Ankara of trying to weaken the group’s influence in negotiations over Syria’s political future through the SNA.

“Syria is now in a new phase, and discussions are underway about the future of the country,” Ms. Jamal said. “Turkiye is trying, through its attacks, to distract us with battles and exclude us from the negotiations in Damascus.”

The Britain-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says since the SNA’s offensive in northern Syria against the Kurds started earlier this month, dozens from both sides have been killed.

Ankara sees the SDF as an affiliate of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which it classifies as a terrorist organisation. Turkish-backed armed groups alongside Turkish jets for years have attacked positions where the SDF are largely present across northern Syria, in a bid to create a buffer zone free from the group along the large shared border.

While the SNA was involved in the lightning insurgency — led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — that toppled Mr. Assad, it has continued its push against the SDF, seen as Syria’s second key actor for its political future.

On Monday (December 23, 2024), the SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami said the group’s forces pushed back the Turkish-backed rebels from areas near the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates, a key source of hydroelectric power. He said the SDF also destroyed a tank belonging to the rebels southeast of Manbij.

The British-based war monitor said on Tuesday (December 24, 2024) that the Kurdish-led group, following overnight fighting, has reclaimed four villages in the areas near the strategic dam.

Turkish jets also pounded the strategic border town of Kobani in recent days.

During Syria’s uprising-turned-conflict, the Kurds carved out an enclave of autonomous rule across northeastern Syria, never fully allying entirely with Assad in Damascus nor the rebels trying to overthrow him.

Even with the Assad family out of the picture, it appears that Ankara’s position won’t change, with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s landmark visit to Syria maintaining a strong position on the Kurdish-led group in his meeting with de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa of HTS.

“It has turned the region into a cauldron of terror with PKK members and far-left groups who have come from Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Europe,” Mr. Fidan said in a news conference after the meeting. “The international community is turning a blind eye to this lawlessness because of the wardenship it provides (against IS).”

With the ongoing fighting, SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi has expressed concern about a strong IS resurgence due to the power vacuum in Syria and the ongoing fighting, which has left the Kurdish-led group unable to carry out its attacks and raids on the extremist group’s scattered sleeper cells.

Tens of thousands of children, family members, and supporters of IS militants are still held in large detention centers in northeastern Syria, in areas under SDF control.

Latakia, Syria:

Syrian cyclist Bassel Soufi rode his bike 40 km (25 miles) from the northwestern city of Latakia on Friday to visit the Assad family’s private coastal resort as local residents strolled around the compound for the first time in decades.

After the family’s brutal 54-year rule and a 13-year civil war, Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday in a generational change for the Middle East.

Since then, many of the properties belonging to Assad or his family have been looted or destroyed by Syrians looking to erase his legacy.

Among those was the family’s massive summer resort in Burj Islam. The compound, boasting a white villa with balconies overlooking the Mediterranean, a private beach, several gardens, and a walking path, lay in disrepair on Friday after heavy looting and damage.

Windows were shattered and broken glass littered the floor, no furniture was left, while toilets, showers, lights and other items were all broken or smashed.

“I feel freedom for the first time in my life just to come here,” Soufi, 50, said, arriving on his bicycle with his phone in hand to film the sea.

“I can’t believe my eyes, they’ve built something that we didn’t see anything like it in all my life,” the former Syrian national team cyclist told Reuters, adding he believes the whole compound must now be for the people and not “for another president”.

“Syrians, for a very long time, were unable to do anything they like. This is the first time for me,” he said.

Following Assad’s toppling, locals – mostly Syrian Turkmen driven out to nearby villages during the construction of the resort – entered the area for the first time since the Assad family built it 50 years ago.

“Everything he did he did with the people’s money. If you look inside the villa it is ridiculous,” said Sayit Bayirli, a fighter from the Free Syrian Army of Turkmen origin at the compound. He said the land on which the resort was built used to be olive groves.

“A few hours after Assad fell we came in… We don’t want these views, these beautiful places to be damaged,” he told Reuters, adding he wanted to see the new government implement a system where the property is given back to those who originally owned it.

Bayirli said Assad had removed his valuables from the villa by sea using small boats and that FSA intelligence showed his children were at the compound this summer.

“It was an incredible excitement, everyone was so happy to see the place after years,” Bayirli said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Damascus, Syria:

Syria’s new leadership said Thursday it was searching for missing US journalist Austin Tice and had secured the release of another American it said had been held by the ousted government.

In 2022, US President Joe Biden accused Syria of holding Tice, a freelance photojournalist detained near Damascus a decade earlier, and demanded that the government of Bashar al-Assad release him.

The transitional government, which took the helm in Syria after Assad’s ouster on Sunday, said that “the search for American citizen Austin Tice is ongoing”.

“We confirm our readiness to cooperate directly with the US administration to search for American citizens disappeared by the former Assad regime,” the transitional government’s department of political affairs added in a statement on Telegram.

In recent days, Syrian residents and armed men have broken into government prisons, freeing inmates, some of whom have spent decades behind bars.

The political department’s statement said that another US citizen, Travis Timmerman, “has been released and secured”.

Residents of the Al-Zyabiyeh neighbourhood of Damascus said they had found Timmerman wandering around without shoes.

“The municipality guard Mousa Rifai found him, so we brought him to our house and fed him and he slept for about an hour,” said Ziyad Nedda.

“He was held in the Palestine Branch, he wouldn’t stop saying it. ‘I was held in the Palestine Branch in Damascus’,” he said.

The “Palestine Branch”, also known as Branch 235, was a prison operated by the Syrian intelligence services under Assad.

Release ‘huge Christmas present’

According to US media reports, 29-year-old Timmerman was last seen in Budapest, Hungary, in early June.

His sister Pixie Rogers described his release as a “huge Christmas present” and said she “can’t wait for that day” she is reunited with her brother.

Timmerman’s mother “is very, very ecstatic…overwhelmed, and just beyond super excited with this information that we got today,” Rogers told the US network CBS.

Tice was working for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS and other media outlets when he was detained at a checkpoint in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, on August 14, 2012.

Last week, the missing journalist’s mother, Debra, told reporters her son is believed to be alive and is being “treated well,” without providing further details.

The rebel forces, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), appointed an interim prime minister on Tuesday to lead Syria until March.

Assad fled the country over the weekend, ending a half-century of his family’s iron-fisted rule.

Sunni Muslim HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many Western governments including the United States, though it has more recently sought to moderate its rhetoric.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Syrian rebels now in power in Damascus have appointed Mohammed al-Bashir as head of a transitional government that will be in place until March 1, state media said on December 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

As leader of a “Salvation Government” in Syria’s Idlib, Mohammad al-Bashir tried to bring a degree of order to the last major bastion of armed opposition against longtime leader Bashar al-Assad.

Now, the engineering graduate in his early 40s will lead the national government, presiding over a country divided and battered by 13 years of war, and seek to unite it in the traditional seat of power, Damascus.

Syria civil war highlights – December 10, 2024

Bashir was born in 1983 in Jabal al-Zawiya in Idlib province, an area mostly run in recent years by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions with less influence.

He studied electrical and electronic engineering at Aleppo university, and Islamic and civil law at Idlib university, according to his biography, and once worked for Syria’s state gas company.

He had served as the head of the rebel administration’s self-styled “Salvation Government” since January, and previously held the role of its “development minister”.

The “Salvation Government”, with its own ministries, departments, judicial and security authorities, was set up in Idlib in 2017 to assist people in the rebel-held area cut off from government services.

It has since begun rolling out assistance in Aleppo, the first major city to fall from government hands after the rebels began a lightning November 27 offensive, capturing swathes of territory and taking the capital on Sunday, toppling Assad.

But managing a rebel region of some five million people is a totally different task from a national leadership role in a country torn by deep divisions and where many people live in poverty.

Beyond the rebels’ own divisions, other groups are also vying for control of former government strongholds.

Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani told outgoing prime minister Mohammed al-Jalali that although Idlib is small and lacks resources, authorities there “have a very high-level of experience” and had had “great success” on some issues.

However, he noted the new government would also need to draw on experienced people from the outgoing administration.

In his first appearance outside the Idlib region, the bearded Bashir was seen in a video released Monday, sitting next to Jolani, wearing a smart grey suit and a gold watch, during a meeting with the outgoing premier.

Radwan Ziadeh, a senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC, said Bashir was “the closest” to Jolani and the rebel factions’ joint operations room.

But “the challenges he faces are very great”, Ziadeh said.

“Just as the revolution was a revolution for all Syrians, the transitional process will be the responsibility of all Syrians in order to ensure it succeeds and guarantees the peaceful transition to democracy,” he said.

Britain, Germany, France, Italy and several other European countries said Monday they would freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians, a day after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.

While Berlin and other governments said they were watching the fast-moving developments in the war-ravaged nation, Austria signalled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria.

Far-right politicians elsewhere made similar demands, including in Germany — home to Europe’s largest Syrian community — at a time when immigration has become a hot-button issue across the continent.

Alice Weidel, of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, reacted with disdain to Sunday’s mass rallies by jubilant Syrians celebrating Assad’s downfall.

“Anyone in Germany who celebrates ‘free Syria’ evidently no longer has any reason to flee,” she wrote on X. “They should return to Syria immediately.”

World leaders and Syrians abroad watched in disbelief at the weekend as Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus, ending Assad’s brutal rule while also sparking new uncertainty.

A German foreign ministry spokesman pointed out that “the fact that the Assad regime has been ended is unfortunately no guarantee of peaceful developments” in the future.

Germany has taken in almost one million Syrians, with most arriving in 2015-16 under ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said many Syrian refugees “now finally have hope of returning to their Syrian homeland” but cautioned that “the situation in Syria is currently very unclear”.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees had imposed a freeze on decisions for ongoing asylum procedures “until the situation is clearer”.

She added that “concrete possibilities of return cannot yet be predicted and it would be unprofessional to speculate in such a volatile situation”.

Rights group Amnesty International slammed Germany’s freeze on asylum decisions, stressing that for now “the human rights situation in the country is completely unclear”.

The head of the UN refugee agency also cautioned that “patience and vigilance” were needed on the issue of refugee returns.

‘Repatriation and deportation’

In Austria, where about 100,000 Syrians live, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer instructed the interior ministry “to suspend all ongoing Syrian asylum applications and to review all asylum grants”.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner added he had “instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly repatriation and deportation programme to Syria”.

“The political situation in Syria has changed fundamentally and, above all, rapidly in recent days,” the ministry said, adding it is “currently monitoring and analysing the new situation”.

The French interior ministry said it too would put asylum requests from Syrians on hold, with authorities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway announcing similar moves.

Britain’s interior ministry said it was taking the same measure “whilst we assess the current situation”.

The Italian government said late Monday after a cabinet meeting that it too was suspending asylum request “in line with other European partners.”

The leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats, a coalition partner in the government, said residence permits for Syrian refugees should now be “reviewed”.

“Destructive Islamist forces are behind the change of power” in Syria, wrote their leader Jimmie Akesson on X.

“I see that groups are happy about this development here in Sweden. You should see it as a good opportunity to go home.”

In Greece, a government spokesman voiced hope that Assad’s fall will eventually allow “the safe return of Syrian refugees” to their country, but without announcing concrete measures.

‘Populist and irresponsible’

In Germany, the debate gained momentum as the country heads towards February elections.

Achim Brotel, president of a grouping of German communes, called for border controls to stop fleeing Assad loyalists reaching Germany.

The centre-right opposition CDU suggested that rejected Syrian asylum-seekers should now lose so-called subsidiary protection.

“If the reason for protection no longer applies, then refugees will have to return to their home country,” CDU legislator Thorsten Frei told Welt TV.

CDU MP Jens Spahn suggested that Berlin charter flights to Syria and offer 1,000 euros ($1,057) to “anyone who wants to return”.

A member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats criticised the debate as “populist and irresponsible”.

Greens party deputy Anton Hofreiter also said “it is completely unclear what will happen next in Syria” and deportation talk was “completely out of place”.

Many Syrians in Germany have watched the events in their home country with great joy but prefer to wait and see before deciding whether to return.

“We want to go back to Syria,” said Mahmoud Zaml, 25, who works in an Arabic pastry shop in Berlin, adding that he hopes to help “rebuild” his country.

“But we have to wait a bit now,” he told AFP. “We have to see what happens and if it is really 100 percent safe, then we will go back to Syria.”

Paris, France:

World powers vowed Sunday to work for stability in Syria and the surrounding region after Islamist-led rebels toppled its longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Here is a round-up of key reactions:

High alert: Russia

Assad’s ally Moscow said Russian troops in Syria were on high alert but that the rebels had “guaranteed” the security of its army bases in the country.

Prior to reports that Assad had fled to Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Syria must not be allowed to fall into the hands of a “terrorist group”.

‘Assad should be held accountable’: US

“We will engage with all Syrian groups… to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward independent, sovereign” Syria, US President Joe Biden said.

Asked by reporters what should happen to the deposed president, who reportedly has fled to Moscow, Biden said that “Assad should be held accountable.”

‘Return to stability’: China

Beijing “is closely following the development of the situation in Syria and hopes that Syria returns to stability as soon as possible”, the foreign ministry said.

‘Friendly relations’: Iran

Iran’s foreign ministry said it expects “friendly” relations with Syria to continue.

It said it would adopt “appropriate approaches” towards Syria in accordance with the behaviour of “effective actors” in Damascus.

‘Heal wounds’: Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country, which has supported rebel movements in Syria, would help “to heal Syria’s wounds and guarantee its unity, integrity and security”.

‘Cautious hope’: UN

The UN envoy for Syria called the rebel takeover “a watershed moment” for the country marred by nearly 14 years of civil war.

“Today we look forward with cautious hope to the opening of a new (chapter) — one of peace, reconciliation, dignity and inclusion for all Syrians,” special envoy Geir Pedersen said.

End to ‘barbaric’ state: France

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s “barbaric state” in Syria.

“I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience. In this moment of uncertainty, I send them my wishes for peace, freedom, and unity,” he wrote on X.

‘Contribute’: Germany

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who welcomed the fall of Assad as “good news”, said Germany was ready to “bring its contribution” to a political solution to bring peace back to the war-stricken country, without specifying further.

“Bashar Al-Assad has oppressed his own people in a brutal manner, he has countless lives on his conscience,” said the German head of state.

‘Work together’: UAE

A senior United Arab Emirates official urged Syrians to collaborate in order to avert a spiral into chaos.

“We hope that the Syrians will work together, that we don’t just see another episode of impending chaos,” presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain.

‘Peace and stability’: UK

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for a peaceful and stable Syria, urging the protection of civilians and minorities.

Arriving in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, the premier said he was “talking to regional allies”, calling the removal of Assad a “real opportunity”.

‘Long-awaited’: EU

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen likewise said the EU would help to rebuild “a Syrian state that protects all minorities”.

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas hailed Assad’s fall as “a positive and long-awaited development” which “also shows the weakness of Assad’s backers, Russia and Iran”.

Blow to Iran: Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Assad’s overthrow as the fall of a “central link in Iran’s axis of evil”.

He called it “a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah”, the group that Israel has been bombarding in Lebanon.

Don’t rely on Putin: Ukraine

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga welcomed Assad’s departure, saying that authoritarians who rely on support from Putin are destined to fall, while stressing Kyiv’s support for Syria’s people.

‘Relief’: Netherlands

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called Assad’s overthrow “a relief to all those who suffered under his cruel dictatorship”. 

Schoof urged a “peaceful transition and the restoration of stability, while ensuring respect for all the country’s minorities”. 

Independent Islamic government: Taliban

Afghanistan’s Taliban government congratulated the Syrian people and rebels, hoping a transition would lead to “an independent and service-oriented Islamic government” and a Syria “free from external interference”.

‘Free will’: Iraq

Iraq urged respect for the “free will of all Syrians and emphasises that the security, territorial integrity and independence of Syria are of paramount importance”, government spokesman Basim Alawadi said.

‘Immense needs’: Red Cross

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said that Syrians faced “immense and urgent needs” after “immense suffering” caused by more than a decade of conflict.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

People gather to take a picture with Nadim Gemayel, Christian politician and son of the assassinated president-elect Bashir Gemayel, as they celebrate after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Beirut, Lebanon December 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is forcing the Biden administration and the incoming Trump team to confront intensifying questions about the possibility of greater conflicts across the Middle East.

Follow More: Syria war LIVE updates: Russia grants asylum to Assad and his family ‘on humanitarian grounds’

President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Assad had fled his country, which his family had ruled for decades, because close ally Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, “was not interested in protecting him any longer.”

U.S. on Syria war

Those comments on Trump’s social media platform came a day after he used another post to decry the possibility of the U.S. intervening militarily in Syria to aid the rebels, declaring, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.” The Biden administration had no intention of intervening, according to President Joe Biden’s national security adviser.

Biden was meeting with his national security team at the White House on Sunday. He was expected to make public comments later in the day.

The U.S has about 900 troops in Syria, including forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group.

Assad’s fall adds to an already tense situation throughout much of region on many fronts, including Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and its fragile cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, 2025, made a connection between the upheaval in Syria and Russia’s war in Ukraine, noting that Assad’s allies in Moscow, as well as in Iran, the main sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah, “are in a weakened state right now.”

Syrian rebels

The Syrian opposition that brought down Assad is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The Biden administration has designated the group as a terrorist organization and says it has links to al-Qaida, although Hayat Tahrir al-Sham says it has since broken ties with al-Qaida.

Vice President-elect JD Vance, a veteran of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, wrote on own social media Sunday to express skepticism about the insurgents.

“Many of ‘the rebels’ are a literal offshoot of ISIS. One can hope they’ve moderated. Time will tell,” he said, using another acronym for the group.

Trump has suggested that Assad’s ouster can advance the prospects for an end to fighting in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February 2022.

Trump wrote that Putin’s government “lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine” and the Republican called for an immediate cease-fire, a day after meeting in Paris with the French and Ukrainian leaders.

Daniel B. Shapiro, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said the American military presence will continue in eastern Syria but was “solely to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and has nothing to do with other aspects of this conflict.”

“We call on all parties in Syria to protect civilians, particularly those from Syria’s minority communities to respect international military norms and to work to achieve a resolution to include the political settlement,” Shapiro said.

“Multiple actors in this conflict have a terrible track record to include Assad’s horrific crimes, Russia’s indiscriminate aerial bomb bombardment, Iranian-back militia involvement and the atrocities of ISIS,” he added.

Shapiro, however, was careful not to directly say Assad had been deposed by the insurgents.

“If confirmed, no one should shed any tears over the Assad regime,” he said.

U.S. journalist in Syria

As they pushed toward the Syrian capital of Damascus, the opposition freed political detainees from government prisons. The family of missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice renewed calls to find him.

“To everyone in Syria that hears this, please remind people that we’re waiting for Austin,” Tice’s mother, Debra, said in comments that hostage advocacy groups spread on social media. “We know that when he comes out, he’s going to be fairly dazed & he’s going to need lots of care & direction. Direct him to his family please!”

Tice disappeared in 2012 outside Damascus, amid intensification of what became a civil war stretching more than a decade.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, at the White House, in Washington, U.S., December 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

President Joe Biden said on Sunday (December 8, 2024) that the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but it was “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Mideast.

FOLLOW MORE: Syria war LIVE updates: Russia grants asylum to Assad and his family ‘on humanitarian grounds’

Speaking at the White House, Mr. Biden said the U.S. was not sure of Assad’s whereabouts, but was monitoring reports he was seeking refuge in Moscow.

Mr. Biden credited action by the U.S. and its allies for weakening Syria’s backers — Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. He said “for the first time” that they could no longer defend Assad’s grip on power.

“Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East,” Mr. Biden said.

Mr. Biden added that United States would engage with “all Syrian groups” over the political transition after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.

“We will engage with all Syrian groups, including within the process led by the United Nations, to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward independent, sovereign” Syria “with a new constitution.”

Joe Biden also warned that some of the rebel groups that ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad have “their own grim record of terrorism,” adding that Washington would assess if they had moderated.

“Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses,” Biden said in an address from the White House.

Mr. Biden added that the United States had “taken note” of recent statements by rebels suggesting they had since moderated, cautioning “we will assess not just their words, but their actions.”

The sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is forcing the Biden administration and the incoming Trump team to confront intensifying questions about the possibility of greater conflicts across the Middle East.

Syria’s ousted President Bashar al-Assad. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian state news agencies are reporting that ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad has arrived in Moscow with his family and given asylum.

FOLLOW MORE: Syria war LIVE updates: Jubilation and gunfire on streets of Syria, as Assad flees marking end of family’s half-century rule

The agencies, Tass and RIA, cited an unidentified Kremlin source. The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the reports but has contacted the Kremlin for comment.

RIA also cited an anonymous Kremlin source that Moscow had received guarantees from Syrian insurgents of the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria. The report did not give further details.

Assad reportedly left Syria early Sunday.

Syrian rebels declared the fall of President Bashar al-Assad today, less than two weeks after a lightning offensive that ended his family’s decades of rule. As Syrians woke up to a changed country, the rebel flags had replaced the posters of Assad, that earlier loomed over almost every corner. The development could lead to a significant change – a new official flag for the country that had its fair share of flag changes.

Current Syrian Flag

The current Syrian flag has been in use since 1980 and is a nod to Arab unity. The colours in the flag mean the following:

• Red represents the blood shed in the revolution for the freedom of Syrians
• White denotes a peaceful future
• The green stars in the middle represent Syria and Egypt – the two founding states of the United Arab Republic
• The Black is for the alleged oppression suffered by Arabs

This flag was first adopted in 1958 when the country had become independent of European influence and decided to form the United Arab Republic with Egypt. The country changed its flag another three times between 1961 and 1980 before settling on the current design. However, with the ouster of Bashar al-Assad that could change soon.

Syrian Rebels’ Flag

On Sunday, as rebels announced on Syria’s state television that the 50-year family dynasty was eliminated, the green-white-black-red opposition flags were seen across the country. The celebrations echoed in Germany, Turkey and Greece where jubilant crowds of thousands waved the Syrian opposition flags.

Supporters of the rebels entered the Syrian embassy in Athens raised the Syrian opposition flag from the rooftop. The police detained four people, however, left the flag flying, as per a Reuters report.

Rebel Flag And ‘Independence’

The rebel flag, however, is not all that much different to the current Syrian flag. It has green at the top, white in the middle and black at the bottom of the flag with three red stars in the middle.

This flag is a modified version of the independence flag first used in 1932 when Syria gained independence from France. The Syrian opposition favoured the flag to represent independence from the Assad government.

Bashar al-Assad and his family are in Moscow, Russian news agencies announced Sunday evening citing a Kremlin source. Russia has granted them “asylum on humanitarian grounds,” the source added.

After his regime was toppled, a statement read on television quoted Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded the offensive – as saying: “We continue to work with determination to achieve the goals of our revolution… We are determined to complete the path we started in 2011”.

In 2011, Assad cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protesters, triggering a complex conflict that drew in foreign armies.

While there has been no communication from Assad or his entourage on his whereabouts, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali said he was ready to cooperate with “any leadership chosen by the Syrian people”.