A group of unknown gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy in Damascus on Sunday after Islamist rebels took the city and overthrew the regime of Bashar Assad, who the Russian Foreign Ministry says fled the country and left ‘instructions’ for a transfer of power.
Iranian state television reported on the embassy incident, saying they did not believe the gunmen were affiliated with the wider rebel group that took the city. Iran had withdrawn most of its officials and their families on Saturday, leaving only a handful of diplomats.
‘It is said that the Iranian embassy was stormed alongside nearby stores by an armed group different from the group now controlling [most of] Syria,’ Iranian state TV said, referring to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded recent rebel advances.
Arab and Iranian media have shared footage from inside the embassy’s premises, where assailants rummaged through furniture and documents inside the building and damaged some windows.
Assad and his British-born wife, Asma al-Assad, fled Damascus with their three children this weekend, according to Syrian television reports. It was not known where they were headed.
A video statement from a group of men on Syrian state TV said that Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners have been set free.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said early Sunday he didn’t know the whereabouts of Assad. He told the Saudi television network Al-Arabiyya that they lost communication Saturday night.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a Telegram post Sunday that Assad left Syria following negotiations with rebel groups, and that the long-time Syrian leader had left ‘instructions’ to ‘transfer power peacefully.’ The Russian ministry said the Kremlin was not directly involved in those discussions.
Crowds of Syrians gathered in the central squares of Damascus to celebrate the news of Assad’s departure. Some chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked horns. In other areas, celebratory gunshots rang out.
Syria has been embroiled in a bloody, nearly 14-year civil war as Islamist rebels looked to overthrow the Assad dynasty. The apparent collapse of more than 50 years of Assad family rule over the Syrian Arabian Republic is a monumental turning point in Middle East politics.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the Islamist leader of HTS, who has a $10 million bounty on his head from the U.S., seeks to present a toned-down version of the radical Islamism that has defined his years of fighting in Syria and in Iraq against American troops. Al-Golani was detained by the U.S. military in the first decade of this century.
Syrian experts have told Fox News Digital that HTS seeks to impose a totalitarian Islamist regime on the population. Phillip Smyth, an expert on Iranian regime proxy groups and Syria, who is with the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital, ‘HTS is a group that is an outgrowth of Al-Qaeda and has connections to Turkey. Their endgame is to create a Taliban-esque society with a few tweaks.’
Al-Golani banned his fighters from opening fire into the air in Damascus.
‘Public institutions will remain under the supervision of the prime minister until they are officially handed over,’ he said in a statement published on his group’s social media outlets.
Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal, Bradford Betz, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report