Syria Latest: Syrians Celebrate Bashar Assad’s Fall as his Whereabouts Remain Unknown

Syria’s government appears to have fallen after opposition fighters said they had entered Damascus following a stunning advance and a Syrian opposition war monitor reported that President Bashar Assad had left the country.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, said Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday. There was no immediate official statement from the Syrian government.

It was the first time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018 when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a yearslong siege.

The night before, opposition forces had taken the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it.

The rapidly developing events have shaken the region. Lebanon said it was closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for one that links Beirut with Damascus. Jordan closed a border crossing with Syria, too.

Eight key countries gathered with the U.N. special envoy on Syria on the sidelines of the Doha Summit for two hours of discussions Saturday night, and more will follow. The U.N. envoy seeks urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.”

Here’s the Syria Latest:

Senior Emirati diplomat declines to answer if Bashar Assad was heading to UAE

MANAMA, Bahrain — Anwar Gargash faced a series of direct questions over Syria, particularly as the UAE in recent years had sought to rehabilitate Assad’s image in the Arab world.

Asked if Assad was heading to the UAE, Gargash said: “When people ask where is Bashar al-Assad going to, I say, you know, when you really look at this, this is really at the end of the day a footnote in history. I’m reminded a little bit by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918 when he went into a long exile.”

He added: “But I don’t think when you look at that period, this is really critical.”

Gargash later refused to answer when repeatedly pressed by journalists on whether his answer was an acknowledgment that Assad was in the UAE.

There has been speculation Assad could flee to the oil-rich, where his extended family is known to own properties in Dubai. Flight-tracking data showed private jets moving between Damascus, Syria, and the UAE on Saturday.

AP