Bashar al-Assad and family flee Syria, granted asylum in Moscow on ‘humanitarian grounds’: Report

Syria Civil War: Russian state media reported that ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has landed in Moscow and has been granted asylum after the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that he stepped down and left Syria.

The Assad family lost control of Syria after more than 50 years of a brutal dictatorship. In the face of an astonishingly swift rebel offensive, President Bashar al-Assad and his family fled to Moscow and were granted political asylum.

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The Interfax news agency quoted the unnamed source as saying, “President Assad of Syria has arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them (him and his family) asylum on humanitarian grounds.”

Russia has requested a closed-door UN security council meeting on Monday to discuss the UN peacekeeping mission in the Golan Heights, according to diplomats.

The United Nations security council will convene on Monday afternoon for an emergency closed door meeting regarding Syria in the aftermath of ousted president Bashar al-Assad fleeing the country, multiple diplomatic officials in the know told Agence France Presse on Sunday.

TASS, Russia’s state-owned news agency, said, “Russian officials are in contact with representatives of the armed Syrian opposition, whose leaders have guaranteed the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions on the territory of Syria.”

US Bombs ISIS Targets in Syria

Meanwhile, US carried out a major round of airstrikes on Islamic State targets on Sunday, and warned the terror group against trying to regain strength in the country after rebels took over the government.

The operation included “dozens” of airstrikes on over 75 targets involving ISIS operatives and camps using B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets and A-10 close-air support attack aircraft “to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria,” according to a statement from US Central Command.

Syrians Celebrate End of Assad Regime

Thousands of Syrians rallied across cities in Europe on Sunday, waving flags and barely able to contain their joy at the downfall of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

As armed rebels swept cities across Syria, they flung open detention facilities, like the notorious Sednaya Prison in Damascus, where rights groups estimated that at least 100,000 people were considered missing or forcibly disappeared since 2011 at the hands of the state. This included the Sednaya military prison, a facility notorious as the site of particularly brutal and humiliating methods of torture.

UN secretary-general António Guterres on Sunday praised the end of Syria’s “dictatorial regime” and called on the country to focus on rebuilding after Bashar al-Assad’s sudden downfall.