Hours before the escape, Assad gathered nearly 30 army and security leaders at the Ministry of Defense and announced the approach of Russian military support. He also called on the Land Forces to remain on standby.
Syrian President Bashar Assad secretly fled to Moscow, leaving his relatives and officials to their fate. Even those around him had no idea about his plans to leave the country. Reuters writes about it.
Assad has told almost no one about his plans to flee Syria after the collapse of his rule, sources told the publication. However, assistants, officials and even relatives were deceived and left in the dark.
Hours before fleeing to Moscow, Assad gathered some 30 military and security chiefs at the Defense Ministry and assured them that Russian military support would arrive. He also called on the Land Forces to remain on standby. One of the commanders spoke on the condition of anonymity.
According to an official close to Assad, Assad told the head of the presidential office that he had finished his work and was going home, but went to the airport instead.
His assistant said that Assad also called his media advisor Butaini Shaban and asked him to come to his house to write a speech for her, but when the woman came, she saw that Assad was empty at home.
“Assad didn’t even resist. He didn’t even gather his own soldiers. He let his supporters face their own fate,” said Nadim Ghouri, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative, a regional think tank.
Three aides said Assad did not even tell his younger brother Maher, commander of the army’s elite 4th Armored Division, about the withdrawal plan. One of the sources said Maher flew by helicopter first to Iraq and then to Russia.
Assad’s maternal cousins Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf also remained in Syria. They tried to escape to Lebanon by car, but on the way they encountered rebels who shot Ehab and wounded Eyad. There has been no official confirmation of their deaths.
Assad fled Damascus by plane on Sunday, December 8, ending his 24-year rule and half a century of uninterrupted rule by his family, and ending the country’s 13-year civil war.
Assad’s last prime minister, Muhammed Celali, said that he spoke to the then-president on the phone at 22.30 on Saturday, December 7.
“In our last meeting, I explained how difficult the situation was, that there was a big movement from Homs to Latakia, and that there was panic and terror in the streets. . “Tomorrow, tomorrow was the last thing he said to me,” he told Saudi Arabian television.
Celali said that he tried to call Assad again the next morning but received no answer.
On December 10, Bild tabloid reported that the Assads might move into elite apartments in Moscow City. Financial Times journalists also noted that Bashar Assad already owns 18 luxury apartments in this elite complex, which he bought for approximately 40 million dollars in the last 6 years.
Russian parliamentarians propose to settle deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who fled from Syria to the Russian Federation, in occupied Mariupol and include him in the “restoration of Donbass”. This was proposed by State Duma deputy and member of the International Relations Committee Dmitry Kuznetsov.
Recall that on December 7, Syrian rebels battled Assad’s government forces for control of the key city of Homs and advanced towards the capital, Damascus. Within 24 hours they captured almost the entire southwestern part of the country.
Source: Focus
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