Opposition forces announced Bashar al-Assad has fled the Syrian capital, toppling his years-long regime that was widely referred to as a bloody dictatorship.

Syrian opposition forces have announced that President Bashar al-Assad has fled the capital Damascus in the early hours of Sunday, following the lightning seizure of key government-held territories by rebel groups over the past 10 days.

Rebel forces had carried out multiple surprise offensives on Aleppo and Hama before encroaching the outskirts of Damascus on Saturday night.

Syrian state television aired a video of members from the armed opposition group, Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), declaring control of the capital and releasing all detainees from Sednaya prison, located near Damascus.

The Syrian opposition embassy in Qatar released a statement on Sunday, expressing gratitude to Qatar for its stance over the years.

“By God’s grace and blessings, we bring you the dawning of the sun of freedom, the liberation of Syria from the grip of tyranny, and the opening of a new chapter in the book of glory and history,” the statement began.

“We thank the State of Qatar, the Amir, government and people, for the unparalleled fraternal stance it provided, its support for the rightful demands of the Syrian people, and its embrace of the Syrian embassy that is inclined towards the people and the demands of their great revolution,” the statement said.

The statement also urged for unity, saying that the road ahead is “long and difficult”.

“On this historic day, we pray for the souls of our righteous martyrs and thank God for the liberation of our children from the depths of the prisons,” it said. “We must unite, joining hand in hand, and strengthen one another, bearing the responsibility of reclaiming our country and building a future worthy of this great nation.”

At the embassy in Doha, several Syrians gathered to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime, filling the sky with the colours of the Syrian revolution flag and chanting anti-Assad slogans.

Saturday marked the first occasion of opposition forces reaching Damascus since 2018.

Rebel groups made their way to Sednaya prison, which has been referred to as the “Human Slaughterhouse” due to its brutal torture methods that detained thousands of people for opposing the Assad family’s rule during the revolution.

The prison not only held Syrian nationals, but also Palestinian and Lebanese detainees.

And for the first time in 2011, Qatar’s Al Jazeera broadcasted in Damascus since the civil war began.

Assad and his father Hafez before him ruled Syria with an iron first for more than 50 years.

Under Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic rule, a bloody civil war broke out after anti-government protests began in March 2011, calling for the downfall of the regime.

The brutal crackdown brought in the likes of foreign mercenaries from regime allies Russia and Iran on Syrian soil. On the other side, the United States and several Gulf state countries have backed foreign fighters in Syria, contributing to the wider proxy war that has ravaged the country for 13 years.

However, with Russia focused on its war in Ukraine since February 2022 and Iran-backed Hezbollah weakened by the recent fighting with Israel, Assad’s allies have been distracted by their own battles.

Assad fled to Russian base

Reports by Axios citing Israeli sources claimed that Assad had fled in an aircraft to a Russian base in Syria, where he is expected to head to Moscow.

A televised report from Iran, the regime’s main backer in the Syrian civil war, also confirmed that Assad had left the capital.

A U.S. official told CNN that the events of Syria have brought in the collapse of “Iran’s artifice” across the Middle East.

On the ground, government buildings, security checkpoints, and airports posts have been abandoned and evacuated. Statues of the Hafez and Bashar al-Assad were felled, and Syrians have taken to the streets to celebrate the fall of the regime and the release of the prisoners.

According to Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali, the government is prepared to “to cooperate with any leadership the people choose” and hand over its responsibilities to a transitional administration in a recorded message.

Following his comments, videos showed Al-Jalali being escorted by rebel forces in the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces have deployed into the buffer zone between Israel and Syria in the occupied Golan Heights, which the Israeli government seized in the 1967 war and officially annexed in 1981.

“Following the recent events in Syria, including the entry of armed personnel into the buffer zone, the [Israeli army] has deployed forces in the buffer zone and in several other places necessary for its defence, to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel,” the Israel military said in a statement.

Qatar’s PM warns of further violence

At a panel discussion during Doha Forum on Saturday, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said that “anyone who estimated that Syria is isolated from the conflict was wrong”.

“Ignoring Syria when the war calmed down was not right,” he said. “There were no serious movement in terms of negotiation, managing the refugees or efforts from Assad to reconcile with his own people.”

However, Sheikh Mohammed warned of future violence that might “destroy whatever is left”.

“More than that, there are no efforts to find a sustainable solution,” he added.