With Assad ousted, a new era starts in Syria while the world watches

Syrians awakened on Monday to a hopeful if uncertain future after rebels seized the capital Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, ending a 13-year civil war and more than 50 years of his family's brutal rule.

The lightning advance of a militia alliance spearheaded by Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, marked one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations. Assad's fall wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world.

Moscow gave asylum to Assad and his family, Russian media reported. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's ambassador to international organisations in Vienna, confirmed this on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

International governments welcomed the end of the Assads' autocratic government as they sought to take stock of a new-look Middle East.

US President Joe Biden said Syria is in a period of risk and uncertainty, and it is the first time in years that Russia, Iran and the Hezbollah militant organisation have not held an influential role there.

HTS is designated as a terrorist group by the US, Turkey and the UN, though it has spent years trying to soften its image to reassure international governments and minority groups within Syria.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Monday Tokyo was paying close attention to developments in Syria.

Assad's overthrow limits Iran's ability to spread weapons to its allies and could cost Russia its Mediterranean naval base. It could also allow millions of refugees scattered for more than a decade in camps across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to return home.

The rebels face a monumental task of rebuilding and running a country after a war that left hundreds of thousands dead, cities pounded to dust and an economy hollowed by global sanctions. Syria will need billions of dollars in aid.

“A new history is being written in the entire region after this great victory,” said Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, head of HTS.

Speaking to a huge crowd on Sunday at Damascus' Umayyad Mosque, a place of enormous religious significance, Golani said with hard work Syria would be “a beacon for the Islamic nation”.

The Assad police state was known as one of the harshest in the Middle East with hundreds of thousands of political prisoners held in horrifying conditions.

On Sunday, elated but often confused inmates poured out of jails. Reunited families wept with joy. Newly freed prisoners were filmed running through the Damascus streets holding up their hands to show how many years they had been in prison.

The White Helmets rescue organisation said it had dispatched emergency teams to search for hidden underground cells believed to hold detainees.

With a curfew declared by the rebels, Damascus was calm overnight, with roads leading into the city mostly empty. One shopping centre was looted on Sunday, and some people rampaged inside Assad's presidential place, leaving carrying furniture.

The rebel coalition said it was working to complete the transfer of power to a transitional governing body with executive powers, referring to building “Syria together”.

Golani is a Sunni Muslim, which is the majority in Syria, but the country is home to a wide range of religious sects, including Christians and Assad's fellow Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The pace of events stunned world capitals and raised concerns about more regional instability on top of the Gaza war, Israel's attacks on Lebanon and tensions between Israel and Iran.

The US Central Command said its forces conducted dozens of air strikes targeting known Islamic State camps and operatives in central Syria on Sunday.

Secretary of defence Lloyd Austin said on Sunday he spoke to Turkish minister of national defence Yasar Guler, emphasising the importance of protecting civilians. He said the US is watching closely.

During Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad, his forces and their Russian allies bombed cities to rubble. The refugee crisis across the Middle East was one of the biggest of modern times and caused a political reckoning in Europe when one million people arrived in 2015.

In recent years, Turkey had backed some rebels in a small redoubt in the northwest and along its border. The US, which has about 900 troops in Syria, backed a Kurdish-led alliance that fought Islamic State jihadists from 2014 to 2017.

Reuters