The whereabouts of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad remain unknown amid conflicting reports, one of which said he was probably killed as his plane crashed, according to media reports on Sunday.
The plane, belonging to Syrian Air, took off from the Damascus airport around the time it was reported that the capital was taken by the rebels, according to data from the flight tracking site Flightradar. The plane initially flew towards the coastal region of Syria, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite community, but then suddenly made a U-turn and flew in the opposite direction for several minutes before disappearing from the map. The Reuters news agency could not immediately determine who was on board.
Two Syrian sources told Reuters that there is a very high probability that the plane crashed as it mysteriously made a surprising U-turn and disappeared from the map.
Russia, however, stated that Assad successfully left Damascus in safety, contradicting the reports.
This comes after Syrian rebels made massive advances in recent days, culminating in the fall of Damascus and the dissolution of the regime. The reasons for the sudden fall are manyfold, including Iran and Hezbollah’s weakening in wake of the war with Israel, and Russia’s unwillingness to assist them as they had in the past due to the war in Ukraine. On Sunday morning, the rebels officially announced that the rule of the Syrian president has fallen after 24 years, thereby ending the 54-year tyrannical reign of the Assad family, 13 years after the outbreak of the civil war. Syrian Prime Minister Ghazi al-Jalali said the remaining regime officials “will cooperate with any elected leadership.” Meanwhile, IDF forces in Israel have been strengthened near the border with the country.