Russia grants political asylum to ex-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, says Kremlin

Russia on Monday said it has granted political asylum to exiled former Syrian president Bashar al Assad

Russia on Monday said it has granted political asylum to exiled former Syrian president Bashar al Assad, AP reported. 

Bashar al-Assad (AFP)

Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russian president Vladimir Putin decided to offer asylum to Assad, who resigned and fled Syria on Sunday after rebels ended his rule. 

Peskov did not comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts. He said that Putin wasn’t planning to meet with Assad.

Assad's regime ended 11 days after rebels carried out a surprise attack, more than 13 years after his crackdown on anti-government protests ignited Syria's civil war -- which had become largely dormant until the rebel push.

"This victory, my brothers, is historic for the region," Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS) that spearheaded the advance, said in an address at the landmark Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Sunday. 

Celebrations across Syria over Assad's ouster

Celebrations erupted on streets in Syria after the rebels took over capital Damascus, ending the Assad family's 50-year-long reign. 

Residents cheered in the streets as the rebel factions heralded the departure of "tyrant" Assad, saying: "We declare the city of Damascus free."

Celebratory gunfire sounded along with shouts of, “Syria is ours and not the Assad family's”, AFP reported. 

Dozens of men, women and children wandered through Assad's modern, spacious home whose rooms had been stripped bare.

"I can't believe I'm living this moment," tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone.

"We've been waiting a long time for this day," he said.

The rebel factions on Telegram proclaimed the end to "50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and displacement".

Around the country, people toppled statues of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad's father and the founder of the government he inherited.

During their advance, the rebels said they had freed prisoners, including on Sunday at the Sednaya facility, notorious for the darkest abuses of Assad's era.