The tomb of the father of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s has been set on fire by rebel fighters after they stormed his mausoleum today.
Pictures show fighters standing next to the burning gravesite of Hafez al-Assad in the family’s ancestral village of Qardaha in the western Latakia province.
The burning tomb was then dragged outside the mausoleum and left by the armed rebels, other images show.
Hafez al-Assad, who was the father and predecessor of the ousted president, died in 2000.
He seized power in 1970 and was the architect of modern Syria, creating a system of divide and rule to maintain his power.
The burning of Hafez’s tomb comes after his son fled Syria following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies.
Syrians across the country and around the world have erupted in celebration, after enduring five decades of rule by his clan that saw anyone suspected of dissent thrown into jail or killed.
Many have travelled into the infamous Sednaya Prison near Damascus, nicknamed the ‘Human Slaughterhouse’ in hopes of finding long-lost family members.
Rebel fighters stand next to the burning gravesite of Syria’s late president Hafez al-Assad at his mausoleum
Rebels stormed the mausoleum today and set the tomb of Hafez al-Assad on fire
A rebel fighter walks past the burning coffin of Syria’s late president Hafez al-Assad outside his mausoleum
The prison was the epicentre of this systematic terror where huge numbers of detainees were subjected to all manner of inhumane treatments and executed.
Dark footage and images published this week showed how horrified rescuers pulled out dozens upon dozens of body bags containing rotting corpses from the depths of the facility.
But there are dozens more facilities across the nation where victims of the Assad regime were left to suffer and die.
The country’s new prime minister said the Islamist-led alliance will ‘guarantee’ the rights of all religious groups and called on the millions who fled the war to return home.
‘Precisely because we are Islamic, we will guarantee the rights of all people and all sects in Syria,’ said Mohammad al-Bashir, whom the rebels appointed as the transitional head of government.
Asked whether Syria’s new constitution would be Islamic, he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that ‘we will clarify all these details during the constituent process’.
Bashir, whose appointment was announced Tuesday, is tasked with heading the multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian country until March 1.
Syrian President Hafez al-Assad with his wife Anisa Makhlouf and daughter Bushra on June 4, 1974
Rebel fighters pose for a picture outside the mausoleum of Syria’s late president Hafez al-Assad in the family’s ancestral village of Qardaha
Pictured: Syrian rebels burn down and destroy the mausoleum of Hafez al-Assad
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (right), his brother Maher (left) and brother-in-law Major General Assef Shawka during the funeral of Hafez al-Assad
While Assad had faced down protests and an armed rebellion for more than a decade, it was a lightning offensive launched on November 27 that ended up forcing him out of power.
The rebels launched their offensive from northwest Syria on the very same day that a ceasefire took effect in the Israel-Hezbollah war in neighbouring Lebanon.
That war, which killed thousands in Lebanon, saw Israel inflict staggering losses among Hezbollah’s ranks.
Today, Moscow confirmed it had smuggled Assad out of Syria and into Russia.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, claimed that Assad was transported to Moscow ‘in the safest way possible’ following the sudden and dramatic collapse of his dictatorship over the weekend.
Speaking to NBC News, Mr Ryabkov said: ‘He is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation.’
He said that he had ‘no idea what going on with him right now’ adding that it ‘would be very wrong for me to elaborate on what happened and how it was resolved’.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad pictured with Vladimir Putin in 2018
Abu Mohammed al-Golani speaks at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus Sunday, December 8
Russia was Assad’s key ally during Syria’s long civil war and they helped maintain his family’s brutal dynasty which had governed Syria for over 50 years.
Human rights groups have previously accused Assad of war crimes – such as using chemical weapons on civilian – but Mr Ryabkov ruled out handing the leader over for trial.
‘Russia is not a party to the convention that established the International Criminal Court,’ he said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
