Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow in July. Photo by Valery Sharifulin/EPA-EFE/Kremlin Pool
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 16 (UPI) — Ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad said he did not consider stepping down or fleeing the country, but remained until Russia requested his “immediate evacuation,” according to a statement published on the Telegram account of the former Syrian Presidency.
Assad said in his statement, which could not be independently verified or authenticated, that his departure from Syria was “neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed.”
He argued that he remained in Damascus, carrying out his duties until the early hours of Dec. 8, when reports indicated the rebels had entered the capital. This was his first public comment since his ouster.
“As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Lattakia in coordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations,” he said. “Upon arrival at the [Russian] Hmeimim air base that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and the last army positions had fallen.”
Moscow requested Assad’s “immediate evacuation” to Russia on Sunday evening after the military base came under “intensified attack by drone strikes” according to the statement.
“This took place a day after the fall of Damascus, following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions,” it said.
The fate and whereabouts of Assad, who ruled Syria for 24 years with an iron fist and brutally suppressed the Syrian revolution that broke out in 2011, remained unknown for several hours on that day while advancing rebels and a jubilant population celebrated the capture of Damascus and the end of his regime.
His fall came 11 days after the Syrian opposition forces, led by Ahmed Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of the Jihadist rebel group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, launched lightning attacks and gradually captured the main cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs.
“At no point during these events, did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”
He argued that during “the darkest years of the war” he did not leave his country, but rather remained with his family alongside his people, confronting terrorism, emphasizing he never abandoned the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon and never sought positions “for personal gain.”
Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, promised to try Assad for his regime’s “brutality and cruelty,” as well as all those who tortured or executed detainees in his notorious prisons.
The fall of Assad revealed a shocking reality about tens of thousands of detainees when rebel forces stormed his regime-run jails in Damascus and other Syrian regions and freed them.
However, a great number of them, including missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice, remain unaccounted for.
While the International Committee of the Red Cross said it has registered 35,000 cases of people who have gone missing in Syria in the past 13 years, Syria’s Network for Human Rights put the number of Syrians “in forced disappearance” at 80,000 to 85,000 killed under torture in Assad’s detention centers.
According to human rights network, only 33,000 detainees have been found and freed from Syria’s prisons since Assad’s ouster. News about the discovery of mass graves have begun to emerge.