Syria’s ousted President Bashar al Assad has arrived in Moscow, Russian state media has confirmed.
Mr Assad and members of his family arrived in the city on Sunday, a Kremlin source told the TASS news agency.
The source said: “Assad and his family members have arrived in Moscow. Russia, for humanitarian reasons, has granted them asylum.”
Mr Assad left the Syrian capital of Damascus after his government fell following a lightning offensive by anti-regime forces across the country – bringing his 24-year rule to an end.
He left after giving orders for there to be a peaceful transfer of power, the Russian foreign ministry said earlier today.
As Mr Assad fled, footage circulating on social media showed families ransacking presidential palaces in Damascus, with some taking selfies in the grand settings, as thousands celebrated in the streets.
The Syrian regime had faced a battle on three fronts – Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) from the north, the Southern Front, and a Kurdish group in the east.
Syrian rebels, made up of the various opposition groups, said they were working to transition power to a new governing body with full executive powers.
“The great Syrian revolution has moved from the stage of struggle to overthrow the Assad regime to the struggle to build a Syria together that befits the sacrifices of its people,” the coalition said in a statement, describing events as a new birth for “great Syria”.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al Jolani, who led the insurgency, declared “the future is ours” in a statement read out on Syrian state TV.
He said there was “no room for turning back” and his group was “determined” to continue on the path it started in 2011.
He later addressed a crowd inside the sprawling Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, where he described the fall of Assad as a “victory to the Islamic nation”.
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