Syria Crisis: President Assad fled from Syria and reached Russia, his family is also in Moscow; Putin granted him political asylum

President Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown in Syria. With the rebels taking over the Syrian capital Damascus, the 50-year rule of the Assad family has come to an end, and that too in just a few hours. President Assad has fled the country and gone to Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has given him political asylum. According to Russian news agencies, ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has reached Moscow with his family and has been granted asylum. Just a few hours before this, rebels had entered the capital Damascus, ending the 50-year rule of the Assad family.

Russian news agencies, TASS and RIA, citing an unnamed source in the presidential office Kremlin, reported that Assad and his family have been given refuge in Moscow. RIA’s report, citing an unidentified Kremlin source, also noted that Russia has received guarantees from Syrian rebels for the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic offices in Syria. However, the report did not give detailed information. Assad left Syria early Sunday morning.

Rebel fighters capture the capital Damascus.

For the last 11 days, there has been a battle between rebel groups and the army in Syria where rebel fighters also captured the capital Damascus on Sunday, after which everyone was seen celebrating victory by firing on the streets. Celebrating crowds gathered at the intersections in Damascus and waving the Syrian revolutionary flag brought back memories of the early days of the ‘Arab Spring rebellion. After there was no news of Assad and other top officials, many people vandalized the Presidential Palace and the residence of the Assad family.

MEA issued advisory

On the other hand, amid the ongoing turmoil in Syria, India has advised its citizens to avoid traveling there. It has also appealed to the citizens living in Syria to be cautious.

Assad came to power in 2000

Assad came to power in 2000. His father had sought to name Bashar’s eldest brother Basil al-Assad as his successor, but Basil was killed in a car crash in Damascus in 1994. Bashar al-Assad has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the civil war, including a chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of the capital in 2013. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he felt “sorry for the Syrian people.” Russia is Assad’s main backer.

The attack started on 27 November

.The rebels’ unprecedented offensive in Syria began on November 27 when gunmen seized Syria’s northern largest city, Aleppo, and the country’s fourth-largest city, Hama. The fall of Assad’s government on Sunday brought a dramatic end to his nearly 14-year struggle to hold on to power. Nearly half a million people have been killed in the Syrian civil war and half the country’s population has been displaced. As the rebellion turned into a civil war, millions of Syrians fled across borders to Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and Europe.