Russian news reports say that ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family arrived in Moscow Sunday, after a stunning rebel advance through Syria forced him flee.
The Russian media reports said the Assad family was granted asylum. Russia has been a close ally of Assad.
Earlier, joyful crowds jammed into the capital city’s squares, waving the three-starred Syrian revolutionary flag reminiscent of the earliest days of the Arab Spring uprising, before Assad’s brutal crackdown and the rise of an insurgency plunged the country into a nearly 14-year civil war. Some Syrians prayed in mosques.
Rebel forces opened the cell doors of the country’s prisons, freeing political prisoners and criminals Assad had jailed and tortured. Others rampaged through the presidential palace and the Assad family residence after the deposed strongman and other top officials fled the country.
The downfall of Assad was stunningly quick, with the rebels capturing the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs in a matter of days as the Syrian army ended any opposition. The rebels are led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS) which has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations.
Some celebrants tore down and ripped apart Assad portraits in the palace, while others walked out carrying dinnerware, chairs, furniture and any palatial belongings they were claiming as keepsakes of the overthrow of the government.
Some celebrants could be seen on video footage torching pictures of Assad plastered prominently on Damascus buildings while people in the streets nonchalantly walked across posters bearing his likeness.
In the streets, people chanted "God is great” and anti-Assad slogans. Some honked car horns. Teen boys picked up weapons that had apparently been discarded by security forces and fired them in the air.
In photos: Syrians celebrate Bashar Assad's fall
The last Assad years, since 2011, were marked by a bitter and bloody civil war in which more than half a million Syrians died and at least half the country's pre-war population of 22 million was displaced.
Now, the immediate fate of Syria is uncertain. Assad’s overthrow is a major blow to Iran, a key supporter of his, and its allies in the Mideast, who have focused their attention on more than a year of conflict with Israel. Hezbollah militants only recently reaching a ceasefire with Israel in Lebanon while the war between Iran-funded Hamas and Israel rages on in Gaza.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani leads HTS and could chart the country's immediate direction. He is a former al-Qaida commander who cut ties with the group years ago and says he embraces pluralism and religious tolerance.
But there are bitter divides in the country. Turkey-backed opposition fighters are battling U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in the north, and the Islamic State group is still active in some remote areas.
A group of rebels aired a video statement on Syrian state television saying the “criminal regime has fallen” and that all prisoners had been freed. They called on people to preserve the institutions of "the free Syrian state." The rebels later announced a curfew in Damascus from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m.
One video circulating online purported to show rebels breaking open cell doors and freeing dozens of female prisoners, many of whom appeared shocked and confused. At least one small child could be seen among them.
Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi, who appeared on state TV later in the day, sought to reassure Syria's religious and ethnic minorities, saying: "Syria is for everyone, no exceptions. Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects."
"We will not deal with people the way the Assad family did," he added.
One Syrian, Mohammed Amer Al-Oulabi, 44, who works in the electricity sector, said, "I did not sleep last night, and I refused to sleep until I heard the news of his fall. From Idlib to Damascus, it only took them [the opposition forces] a few days, thank God. May God bless them, the heroic lions who made us proud."
Syria's Al-Watan newspaper, which was historically pro-government, wrote: "We are facing a new page for Syria. We thank God for not shedding more blood. We believe and trust that Syria will be for all Syrians."
The newspaper said that media workers should not be blamed for publishing government statements in the past, saying: "We only carried out the instructions and published the news they sent us."
The Alawite sect — to which Assad belongs, and which has formed the core of his base — called on young Syrians to be "calm, rational and prudent and not to be dragged into what tears apart the unity of our country."
The rebels mostly are part of the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria, which also has sizable Druze, Christian and Kurdish communities.
Assad was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the country’s civil war, including a 2013 chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus. There was no immediate comment from Iran, which had been Assad's staunchest supporter. The Iranian Embassy in Damascus was ransacked after apparently having been abandoned.
The U.N.'s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, called Saturday for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an "orderly political transition."
The Gulf nation of Qatar, a key regional mediator, hosted an emergency meeting of foreign ministers and top officials from eight countries with interests in Syria late Saturday. The participants included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Turkey.
Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari, Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters that they agreed on the need "to engage all parties on the ground," including HTS, and that the main concern is "stability and safe transition."
The Israeli military said Sunday it has deployed forces in a demilitarized buffer zone along its northern frontier with Syria following the rebel offensive there.
The military said the deployment was meant to provide security for residents of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war and the international community, except for the United States, views it as Israeli-occupied.
VOA’s Edward Yeranian contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press.
