0
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family arrived in Russia’s capital Moscow after receiving humanitarian asylum from the country, Russian state media TASS said, citing a Kremlin source.
“Assad and his family arrived in Moscow. Russia, for humanitarian reasons, granted them asylum,” the Russian government source explained, according to the agency.
File photo shows Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the then president of Syria, Bashar Al-Asad/Photo: Kremlin press/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Russia is one of the countries allied with the Assad government and has been involved in the recent fight against the rebels.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s long rule ended after rebels seized the capital Damascus. Assad’s family had been in power for more than a century, Bashar was elected in 2000, completing 24 years of his rule this year.
The leader of the main rebel group, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, called Assad’s overthrow a “victory for the entire Islamic nation.” The rebels, led by Jolani’s HTS group, were formed from an al Qaeda affiliate.
“This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation. This new triumph, my brothers, marks a new chapter in the history of the region,” said the leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a group that was formed from a former Al Qaeda affiliate.
In a speech inside a mosque in the capital, Jolani added that Syria had been a “playground for Iranian ambitions, spreading sectarianism, inciting corruption,” but now, “Syria is being purified by the grace of Almighty God and the efforts of the heroic Mujahideen.”
Understand the conflict in Syria
Syria’s civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad suppressed a pro-democracy uprising.
The country was plunged into full-scale conflict when a rebel force was formed, known as the Free Syrian Army, to fight government troops.
Furthermore, the Islamic State, a terrorist group, also managed to gain a foothold in the country and came to control 70% of Syrian territory.
Fighting escalated as other regional actors and world powers — from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia — joined in, escalating the country’s war into what some observers described as a “proxy war.”
Russia has allied with Bashar al-Assad’s government to combat the Islamic State and rebels, while the United States has led an international coalition to repel the terrorist group.
After a ceasefire agreement in 2020, the conflict remained largely “dormant”, with minor clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime.
More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the UN, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.
