His Security Council was called to hold an emergency meeting today behind closed doors on the developments in , after the fall of the president, diplomatic sources informed AFP yesterday Sunday.
The extraordinary meeting, which is scheduled to start at around 15:00 (local time; 22:00 Greek time), .
At the same time, Syrians are full of concern for the future: “The roads are deserted [και] shops closed’ on the streets of Damascus this morning, reports a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Suhair Zakkoot, who is in the Syrian capital, told the BBC that citizens have “a million unanswered questions” about what will happen next.
“The world lives in fear,” he says. “Will they be able to go back to their normal lives? Will their children go to school tomorrow?’
“”. In eleven days, Bashar al-Assad fell. Almost 14 years after the outbreak of the uprising in Syria, which many thought was dead, everything changed in a few hours. And the map of the Middle East may be redrawn from scratch.
The hidden underground cells
Syria’s civil defense group, known as the White Helmets, has announced it is investigating reports from survivors of the notorious Saydnaya prison that people are being held in secret underground cells.
In a post on Platform X, the organization said it has sent five “special emergency teams” to the prison, accompanied by a guide who knows the layout of the site.
Saydnaya is one of the prisons liberated when the rebels seized territory in the country. Damascus province authorities said efforts were continuing to free prisoners, some of whom were “on the verge of suffocation” due to a lack of ventilation.
The Damascus province administration appealed via social media to ex-soldiers and prison officials to give the rebels the codes to the electronic doors of the basements.
According to the reports, the rebels have not been able to open them to free “more than 100,000 prisoners seen on the closed circuit monitors”.
Videos circulating online, including reports from Al Jazeera, show efforts to gain access to the lower levels of the prison. In one of them, a man is seen using a pole to knock down a low wall, revealing a dark space behind it.
Almost a day after the liberation of Sednaya prison in , rebels are still digging in the basement floors of the infamous «Red Wing» in an attempt to reach prisoners held there.
Where are organizations
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Another video verified by AFP showed Syrians rushing to see if their relatives were among those freed from Saydnaya, where thousands of opposition supporters are said to have been tortured and executed under the Assad regime.
Rebel forces have swept across Syria, freeing prisoners from government prisons as they went.
During the war, which began in 2011, government forces held hundreds of thousands of people in detention camps, where human rights groups alleged systematic torture.
On Saturday, the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced that it had freed more than 3,500 prisoners from the Homs Military Prison as it captured the city.
The death camp
Saydnaya prisons, also known as “human slaughterhouses”, have for years been a symbol of the Assad regime’s worst abuses. In a 2022 report, ADMSP estimated that more than 30,000 prisoners were executed or died from torture, lack of medical care or starvation between 2011 and 2018.
The fall of the regime and the images of the prisoners coming to light, after decades in the dark, have become symbols of liberation from an era marked by violence, terror and repression.
The luxury retreat
The Assad family’s secret escape tunnels have been revealed amid raids by Syrian rebels under the compound of the ousted former Syrian leader’s brother, who has taken refuge in Moscow.
A video reportedly shows the underground “mansion” of Maher al-Assad, known for his brutality, who held the rank of lieutenant general and head of the Syrian army’s elite Fourth Division.
Massive tunnel complex beneath Maher Assad’s mansion, wide enough for trucks carrying Captagon and gold to drive through.
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Lost and won
After Hamas’s unprecedented incursion into Israel, Iran and the “axis of resistance” have been embroiled in a war that, analysts say, has exposed the Islamic Republic’s weaknesses.
Hezbollah suffered heavy blows in the war against Israel: its leadership was decimated. Above all, it lost its iconic leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Its supply routes of arms and money from Tehran, hammered by Israel into Iranian soil, are now threatened by the new rulers in Damascus — who certainly have not forgotten its key role in crushing the rebellion.
As for Russia, it remains mired in war with Ukraine and soon risks suffering a major loss: that of its largest naval base in the Middle East, at Tartus, on the Syrian coast in the Mediterranean. “It’s hard to imagine that the new socio-political order in Damascus will allow the Russians to stay, after all they’ve done for the Assad regime,” discounts Mr. Krieg.
On the other hand, Turkey, the protectorate of rebel organizations that participated in the attack, is “the big winner”, he believes. However, it may “have influence,” but not “control,” he points out.
Especially since the Middle East is faced with the risk of “war everywhere” breaking out with the prospect of “the return of Donald Trump”, adds Aaron Lund of the Century International research center.
After “the fall of the Assad regime, questions are raised about his replacement” and how long “it will take” for a new situation to take shape. “We’re going to see all kinds of regional consequences,” he warned.
