The former dictator of Syria, Bashar Assad, has fled the country after forces who were against him took over Damascus with little resistance.
The information was confirmed on Sunday by Russia’s Foreign Ministry that the former dictator resigned from his position as the helmsman and disappeared from Syria with an instruction for a peaceful change of power.
No one can immediately confirm where Bashar Assad is hiding with a report suspected to be a rumor suggesting that he has died in a plane crash or in Russia.
Russia, in its statement, appealed to all the parties involved to follow peace and pursue political solutions. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali has also announced that the government is willing to cooperate with the aggrieved party and transit power to a transitional government.
The leader of the rebel group, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, said that the state institutions in Syria will be temporarily under the supervision of Jalali until he hands over.
Assad was in charge of Syria for almost 25 years, strengthening his family’s stronghold as an authoritarian regime. His government partnered with Russia and Iran, and he has faced widespread attacks for human rights abuses, in addition to the use of chemical weapons when the war that began in 2011 was ongoing.
The insurgency in the country poses a threat to Russia’s strategic military bases in Syria with an airbase in Latakia and a naval facility in Tartus. Images captured on satellite show ships that were leaving Tartus in recent days.
