Bashar Assad, Syria’s now former dictator, has fled the country, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, after opposition forces stormed the Syrian capital with scant resistance from the regime.
After negotiations with the rebels who took over Damascus — the capital — early Sunday, Assad “decided to resign from the presidency and left the country, instructing a peaceful transfer of power,” the ministry said in a post on Telegram. His whereabouts are still unknown, with some reports claiming he died in a plane crash.
Russia is asking “all parties involved to renounce the use of violence and to resolve all issues of governance by political means,” the Foreign Ministry said.