Mystery surrounds a plane that vanished from a flight-tracker while above Syria – sparking theories it was carrying President Assad and could have crashed or even been shot down.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar 24 showed a plane believed to be carrying Bashar al-Assad leaving the Syrian capital Damascus in the early hours of Sunday morning and heading towards the Mediterranean Sea, before making a U-turn and disappearing from the map.
Reuters quickly reported that ‘there was a very high probability that Assad may have been killed in a plane crash as it was a mystery why the plane took a surprise U-turn and disappeared,’ citing two anonymous Syrian sources.
But Russia has now called for the story to be retracted amid reports the Syrian dictator had landed in Moscow and been granted asylum there in the wake of his regime’s humiliating collapse.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Reuters of spreading ‘fake’ news following the story linking Assad to the alleged crash.
‘I wonder if Reuters, which reported on Assad’s ‘highly likely’ death, will refute itself?’ she asked.
In an earlier statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Assad had resigned as president and left Syria, but it did not provide details on where he had relocated.
It was later reported Assad and his family had arrived in Russia after being granted asylum in Moscow, the country’s state media claimed, citing a Kremlin source.
Al-Assad and his family have arrived in Russia and have been granted asylum in Moscow, Russian state media claimed, citing a Kremlin source (file image of al-Assad, his wife Asma al-Assad (C) walking with their children, Hafez (2nd-R), Karim (R) and Zein (L) in 2022)
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 24, 2024
The Interfax news agency quoted the unnamed source as saying: ‘President Assad of Syria has arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them (him and his family) asylum on humanitarian grounds.’
Asked whether Assad was confirmed to be in the Russian capital, a Western official said they believed that was likely the case and had no reason to doubt Moscow’s claim.
He reportedly left his home country early Sunday, and Syrians have been pouring into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire after a stunning rebel advance reached the capital, ending the al-Assad family’s 50 years of iron rule.
‘Maybe he thought he knew that this was coming so kind of tried to take himself and leave everyone else,’ Colonel Philip Ingram, a former British Army intelligence officer, told MailOnline about al-Assad’s rumoured move to Russia.
Assad’s reported asylum, his longtime ally and protector, comes as Syrian opposition leaders guaranteed the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic missions inside Syria, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing a Kremlin source.
The TASS state news agency said: ‘Russian officials are in contact with representatives of the armed Syrian opposition, whose leaders have guaranteed the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions on the territory of Syria.’
Russia, Assad’s biggest backer along with Iran, holds a naval base in Tartus and a military airfield in Khmeimim.
Moscow’s forces became militarily involved in the Syrian conflict in 2015, providing support for Assad’s forces to crush the opposition in the bloody civil war.
Flightradar24 showed a plane heading from the Syrian capital Damascus towards the Mediterranean Sea in the early hours of Sunday morning
The plane then appears to make a U-turn before vanishing off the map
People kick a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al Assad after Syria’s army command notified officers that al-Assad’s 24-year rule has ended
Residents in Hama set ablaze a large banner bearing a picture of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad hanging on the facade of a municipal building
People celebrate at Umayyad Square in Damascus on December 8, 2024, as rebel soldiers declare that they have taken the capital
‘Russia has always been in favour of a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Our starting point is the need to resume negotiations under the auspices of the UN,’ the Kremlin source added.
A Russian representative to the United Nations announced that Moscow had requested an emergency closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in Syria for Monday afternoon.
‘The consequences (of the events in Syria) for this country and the whole region have not yet been measured,’ the official said on Telegram.
Joyful crowds gathered in squares in Damascus, waving the Syrian revolutionary flag in scenes that recalled the early days of the Arab Spring uprising, before a brutal crackdown and the rise of an insurgency plunged the country into a nearly 14-year civil war.
Others gleefully ransacked the presidential palace and residence after Assad and other top officials vanished.
Syrian state television broadcast a rebel statement early Sunday saying Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been released.
They called on people to preserve the institutions of ‘the free Syrian state’. The rebels later announced a curfew in Damascus from 4pm to 5am.
The rebels said they freed people held at the notorious Saydnaya prison, where rights groups say thousands were tortured and killed.
A video circulating online purported to show rebels breaking open cell doors and freeing dozens of female prisoners, many of whom appeared shocked. At least one small child was seen among them.
‘This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where is he,’ said one relative, Bassam Masr. ‘I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years.’
Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi later appeared on state TV and 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 al-Assad family did,’ he added.
