Bashar Assad denies planned exit from Syria, denounces new leaders as ‘terrorists’

DAMASCUS: Bashar Assad on Monday said he fled Syria only after Damascus had fallen and denounced the country’s new leaders as ‘terrorists,’ in his first remarks since militants seized the capital and unseated him.

“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed,” said a statement from Assad on the ousted presidency’s Telegram channel.

“I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours” of Sunday December 8, it added.

“As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in coordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations,” the statement said, adding that he arrived at the Hmeimim base that morning.

“As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes,” it said, and “Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of December 8.”

Five former officials previously told AFP that hours before militant forces seized Damascus and toppled Assad’s government, the former Syrian president was already out of the country.

The officials said that the night before, Assad had even asked his close adviser to prepare a speech — which the ousted leader never gave — before flying from Damascus airport to Russia’s Hmeimim air base, and from there out of the country.

“When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose,” the statement from Assad added.

Though Assad has long branded any who oppose his rule “terrorists,” Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the group that led his overthrow, has also been proscribed as a terrorist organization by the United States and other Western governments.

With its roots in a former branch of Al-Qaeda in Syria, HTS broke with the extremist group in 2016 and has sought to soften its image. In recent days, both the US and Britain have established contact with the group.