Mystery surrounded the whereabouts of Bashar al-Assad, who was no longer in Damascus after rebels captured the Syrian capital on Sunday, ending his family’s more than five decades of rule.
Two senior army officers said Assad had boarded a plane in Damascus early Sunday for an undisclosed destination.
Russia, one of Assad’s closest allies, confirmed that Assad had left Syria, but did not say where he was, including whether Moscow had granted him asylum.
“As a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to resign from the presidency and leave the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Assad has not spoken publicly since a sudden rebel advance a week ago, when rebels captured northern Aleppo in a surprise attack and then marched on several cities as the front line collapsed. .
There were no official announcements on Sunday about the whereabouts of Assad’s wife Asma or his children, the eldest of whom has long studied in Russia and received a degree from a Moscow university last year.
According to data from the Flightradar website, a Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus airport at about the same time as the capture of the capital by rebels was reported.
The plane initially flew towards Syria’s coastal region, a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, but then suddenly took a U-turn and flew in the opposite direction for a few minutes before disappearing from the map. Reuters could not determine who was on board the plane.
Two Syrian sources said that the sudden change in course and the plane’s disappearance from tracking could indicate that it had been shot down, or that it had turned off its transponder.
The planes took off from Damascus shortly after rebels seized the central city of Homs, cutting off the capital from the coast, where Assad’s Russian ally has air and naval bases.
The only trackable flight departing from Syria visible just after midnight on the flight tracking site Flightradar24 took off from Homs for the United Arab Emirates, hours after rebels captured the city.
As rebel advances accelerated last week, there was speculation that Assad might seek refuge with Moscow or his other main ally, Iran. Syrian state media said Saturday that he was still in Damascus.
He visited Moscow just before the rebel attack. Iranian news agencies published a photo of him on Saturday, saying he was meeting a top Iranian official in Damascus.
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