Rebel forces in Syria said they were advancing into the capital Damascus after capturing four other cities in the past 24 hours as as a lightning advance by insurgents continued, threatening President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power which was heavily reliant on support from Iranian, Russian government.
Upon declaring Damascus free of Bashar Al-Assad, the Iranian embassy in Damascus has been stormed and looted by Syrians celebrating the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
This development is being celebrated by many Syrians even those abroad. Syrian refugee communities abroad are among those celebrating the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government after a week-long lightning rebel offensive.
The civil war that erupted in 2011 has forced around 12 million Syrians — more than half of the country’s 2011 population of around 22 million — from their homes. Around 5.4 million of these were still living abroad as of late 2022, per United Nations data.
Crowds gathered in cities in Turkey and Lebanon on Saturday night into Sunday morning to celebrate the news of Damascus falling to rebel forces advancing from the north and south.
Commenting on the development in Syrian, President-elect Donald Trump said in a post to Truth Social early Sunday that Russia “lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “is gone,” Trump said, adding: “He has fled his country.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin “was not interested in protecting him any longer,” Trump wrote. “There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place.”
Rebel forces claimed on Sunday morning that Assad had left Damascus. His current whereabouts are unknown.
“Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now,” Trump added, citing Moscow’s struggles in Ukraine and recent Israeli military successes against Iran and its regional proxy forces across the Middle East.