Presidential palace in shock The hours before Assad's escape from Syria
The capture of Damascus by Islamists caught Syria's former ruler Bashar al-Assad off guard. Only a few hours before the fall of the capital, he fled in a night and fog operation.
15.12.2024, 19:44
SDA
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- Just a few hours before the fall of the capital, the then ruler Bashar al-Assad fled in a cloak-and-dagger operation.
- An airplane took Assad to Moscow to meet his ally Putin.
- High-ranking officials report on what happened in the presidential palace in Damascus in the final days and hours before the end of Assad's rule.
On the evening of December 7, Assad had called his press advisor and asked her to prepare a speech for him. But just a few hours later, he boarded a plane that took him to the Russian military base at Hmeimim in western Syria. From there, a plane took him to Moscow, where his ally, President Vladimir Putin, granted him asylum, an advisor to Assad explained.
Assad's brother Maher, commander of the feared fourth brigade of the Syrian army, only learns of the ruler's escape by chance while he is still defending Damascus with his troops. He then decides to take a helicopter - presumably to flee to Baghdad.
High-ranking officials and other sources told AFP on condition of anonymity what happened in the presidential palace in Damascus in the last days and hours before the end of Assad's rule.
Woman in Moscow for cancer treatment
When the Islamist HTS militia and allied groups launched their major offensive in northern Syria on November 27, Assad was in Moscow, where his wife Asma was being treated for cancer. Two days later, the entire family attended the defense of his son Hafez's doctoral thesis - only Assad was missing, according to an official from the presidential office.
When the president returns from Moscow on November 30, Syria's second largest city, Aleppo, is already in the hands of the militias. In the days that followed, the Islamists took Hama and Homs before arriving in Damascus a week later.
On Saturday, December 7, "Assad did not meet with us," explained an advisor to the presidential palace. "We knew he was there, but we didn't have a meeting with him." The president's non-appearance without any explanation had caused great confusion in his entourage.
Did not show up for appointments
"We haven't seen him since the fall of Aleppo, which was very strange," said the official. Assad had called a meeting with the heads of the intelligence services in the middle of the week, but then failed to show up for the appointment.
On Thursday, the strategically important city of Hama fell. "I spoke to soldiers in Hama at 11.30 a.m., who assured me that the city was sealed off and that not even a mouse could get in," said a colonel.
Two hours later, the soldiers were ordered to stop fighting and to retreat to Homs further south. They "are at a loss, take off their uniforms and weapons and try to get home", the colonel reported. "Who gave this order? We don't know."
Army burns archive holdings
Assad is scheduled to address the people on Saturday morning. "We started setting up the equipment. Everything was ready," said a senior former presidential palace official. "Later, to our surprise, we learned that the speech had been postponed, perhaps to Sunday morning," he added. None of the government officials had known that the army had already started burning its archives at the time, he added.
At 9 p.m. local time, "the president called his political adviser Bouthaina Shaaban and asked her to prepare a speech for him and submit it to the political committee, which was to meet on Sunday morning, another official said.
At 10 p.m., Shaaban reportedly called him back, but Assad did not pick up the phone. In the evening, Assad's media director Kamel Sakr told journalists that the president would "make a statement very soon". But then Sakr also stopped answering the phone, as did Interior Minister Mohammed al-Rahmun.
"Only two left in the office"
Around midnight, the senior palace official is told that the president needs a cameraman for an event in the morning. "That gave us the feeling that he was still there," the official explained. At around 02:00 in the morning, a secret service officer called him and told him that all government representatives had left their offices.
"I was shocked. There were only two of us left in the office," he said. "The palace was almost empty and we were very confused." He then also left the presidential palace at 02:30.
"When we got to Umayyad Square, there were many soldiers on the run, looking for transportation." The sight was "terrifying": Tens of thousands of cars were leaving Damascus and even more people were fleeing on foot. "At that moment, I realized that everything was lost and Damascus had fallen."
