Transcript of Assad flees to Russia as Syria falls to rebels. See how it unfolded

It's been a breathtaking 24 hours in Syria. For the millions who had lived under the brutal Assad regime, a wave of elation and relief erupted when the news broke of him being ousted. Here's what it looked like and sounded like when the rebels rolled into key cities, including the capital Damascus.

We are just now about 20 miles from the Syrian border, and you can see celebrations are breaking out everywhere. This woman actually has just offered me some sweets. Miss This is the mood right now. It is festive. It is jubilant.

Take a look with me. You can see people are waving the flag, the flag of the Syrian revolution. It has got 3 stars. You can see children, and it's just an extraordinary moment. I think no 1 realized that this would ever actually happen after so many years

CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Peyton Walsh has more on Assad's fall from power.

Decades of savage horrific rule over in a matter of days. Thousands of Syrians celebrated in the streets of Damascus after rebel forces advanced on the capital early Sunday morning declaring it free of president Bashar al Assad.

We announce to you from the Syrian News Channel the victory of the great Syrian revolution after 13 years of patience and sacrifice. We won the bet and toppled the criminal Assad regime.

Facing crumbling resistance from regime forces, rebels launched a stunning lightning offensive. Russia, undermining its long term ally by announcing he had fled the country and was granted asylum in Moscow. Hours of jubilation followed as civilians and rebels entered the presidential palace looting furniture with children running about, a sign of how every day the suffering he inflicted had been. Some even touring the presidential kitchen in a land where starvation was once a weapon. What would you like?

1 woman says while filming. Our people are hungry. Take whatever you want. Traces of Assad were being dismantled across the country. This statue of the man who had children gassed in a Gupta basement 11 years ago toppled in the eastern city of Tartus.

His image torn down from buildings in Damascus and on top of the gates of Homs city center, symbolically where protesters tore apart his image more than a decade ago in a scene that defined the civil war's early days. Inspired by the seismic shifts of the Arab spring, Syrians rose up in 2011 demanding democracy, but were met with live rounds and eventually jet planes, chemical weapons, and mass executions and torture. 100 of 1,000 were killed, 1,000,000 displaced. As rebels swept through the capital on Sunday, images surfaced of prisoners being released from the notorious Saidania Prison from which so few emerged, dubbed the human slaughterhouse by Amnesty International. The militant figure leading this rebel offensive is Abu Mohammed Al Jalani, seen here prostrating in prayer upon entering Damascus.

Once affiliated with Al Qaeda, Jalani has been suggesting he has matured from his extremist roots, though there are deep concerns about what kind of new Syria may now emerge. At 1 of the oldest mosques in the world in Damascus, he was received with applause and jeers as he hailed total victory.

This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation. This new triumph, my brothers, marks a new chapter in the history of the region.

Without doubt a new chapter, but with the joy of change comes anxiety at the future and surely a reckoning of sorts for the decades of horror past that could mire the hope of the days ahead.

CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, is inside Syria right now just a short time ago. She spoke to us from Damascus, the capital. Here's some of what she said.

Well, Wolf, I have to say the moment is just utterly surreal for those of us who have been covering this story for more than 14 years. It never seemed possible that it would end like this. I wanna say that the streets are incredibly calm, incredibly quiet, but you can see just behind me, a few cars have been going through the street. There's actually a curfew in place from 4 PM to 6 AM. That is a security measure.

Of course, there has been some looting in Damascus earlier on, some chaotic scenes. And so as a precaution, as we saw in Aleppo, they have put this, curfew into place. I wanna show you, though, Wolf, a clip of the moment that we crossed the border because this is a border that I crossed many times, when I used to live in Lebanon, when I used to cover Syria at the very, very beginning of the uprising, and the contrast from what it was and what we experienced tonight is just startling. So take a look at this. So we are just crossing now into Syria.

It's astonishing to see. It's absolutely empty.

The border points before, there would have been soldiers. There would have been border guards.

Now there is absolutely nobody from the Syrian machine. I never some friendly people waving us through. And honestly, the last time I came

down this road was back in 2011. I was leaving Syria. I had been undercover in Damascus, posing as a tourist, went back into Lebanon, and I never imagined this moment would come when we would be driving through this border with no 1 from the regime to stop us.

The scene at that border crossing as we pass through it, again, it was already dark, already past curfew, very, very quiet, and just nothing like we've seen it before. The only real evidence we saw, Wolf, of any struggle to finally take, Damascus, to finally oust Bashar al Assad Assad was a tank in the road below a torn poster of president, or I should say, former president Bashar al Assad. And Wolf, my cameraman Scott McWhinney just found this on the ground literally as we were listening to that clip. This is the old flag of the Syrian regime, which has 2 green stars. The rebel's flag has 3 green stars, but this 1 has now been literally we just found it on the floor.

I guess, a real moment where you see how much things have changed just in the past 24 hours. In terms of the security situation on the streets, I would just add, we anticipated that we might see quite a lot of checkpoints as we came into the city. We didn't. We did see a group of men. They did not appear to be armed, but they asked us what we were doing, where we were going.

And now that we are sort of ensconced, in our place where we're staying for the night, we have seen a couple of patrols. I saw 2 men armed, and I went up to them and asked them where they were from. They told me they were from Idlib, which is in the northern part of the country. And we saw a man on the street go up and wanted to pose for a photograph of them, which I think sort of speaks to the moment. There is obviously jubilation, elation, but also this sense of you can't compute.

It was so fast, so breathtaking. It's astonishing, and I think people are taking some time to try to process the magnitude. Keep in mind, Wolf, we're talking about 53 years of Assad rule. 53 years of a brutal police state. And I can't tell you how many Syrians have said to me, Wolf, that, you know, we understand that there are concerns about the rebels and the makeup of the rebels and the fact that some of them are Islamist and some of them are even jihadists or have been affiliated with Al Qaeda or prescribed organizations, But let us have this moment.

Let us celebrate the fact that this brutal dictator who has ruthlessly killed 100 of 1000 of people, who has gassed children with lethal nerve agents, who has locked people in prisons and tortured and beaten them to death, that he is finally gone. And that whatever may come and whatever the anxiety, this is a new chapter for Syria Wolf.

Bashar al Assad inherited his father's totalitarian regime and left it and his country in ruins. A thuggish police state in a brutal repression turned war, where 100 of thousands of civilians were killed and more than half the population fled their homes.

He'll be remembered, as 1 of the most violent, rulers in response to the uprisings that started in late 2010 in the Arab world. He'll also be remembered as the, failing endpoint of the Essad dynasty that his father had started that lasted for over 42 years, but it collapsed under him.

Bashar al Assad never expected to take over from his father. His older brother, Basil, was the heir apparent. Instead, Bashar trained as an ophthalmologist in London. Former Assad family insiders say he didn't have the right stuff to run Syria.

His brother, Basel, bullied him as a child. His father never gave him as much attention as Basel.

But a high speed car crash killed Basel, and Bashar was brought back home to learn the family business. When president Hafez al Assad died in 2000, Syria's elite pushed Bashar into the presidency, keeping 30 years of their own wealth, power, position, and influence intact.

Hafez was a leader, the head of the entire regime, while Bashar never came close to that.

At first, the new president agreed to modest reforms and released hundreds of political prisoners. But that brief moment of optimism dubbed the Damascus Spring ended abruptly. A decade later, the regional upheaval known as the Arab Spring wouldn't be addressed as easily. Protests demanding change spread across Syria in early 2,011. The regime cracked down, turning peaceful protest into slaughter.

The UN found what it called massive evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state. Assad, the deceptively gentle face of an increasingly desperate regime, denied responsibility in 1 of his rare encounters with a western journalist.

They are not my forces. They are military forces belong to the government. Okay.

But you're

I don't own them. I'm president.

The chaos spawned countless local militias and opposition forces. In the mayhem, the ultra violent Islamist group, ISIS, gained a temporary foothold, spewing its nihilistic terror over the border into Iraq. US and Iraqi forces confronted and ultimately crushed them, but didn't challenge Assad's brutal authority. Fearing the developing threat, the United States led a coalition to fight Assad's terrorist enemies for him, ISIS and Al Qaeda. Russia too joined the fight.

Assad and his allies, Hezbollah from Lebanon, an Iranian militia, were losing ground, committing more forces than any other country. With barbaric, internationally condemned ground and air assaults, Russia turned the tide in Assad's favor. But when Russia's forces went to war in Ukraine in 2022, the clock on Assad's rule began ticking down. By late 2024, his other main allies, Iran and Hezbollah, were blooded by over a year long war with Israel. Assad's fortunes plummeted.

Former Al Qaeda turned nationalist Islamist Hayat Tarir al Sham surged out of their northern enclave, exploiting Assad's allies' weakness, overrunning the country. Within 2 weeks, Assad had fled to Russia, ending his family's half century ruthless repression of the Syrian people. His life in exile begins living in the shadow of fear. His heinous crimes will eventually catch up with him.

And I wanna bring in Nick Robertson now. Nick, my apologies. That was my mistake. That was your reporting that we just saw and listened to. And it really does just give us such a vast picture of of the Bashar al Assad and the Assad family, regime and the control that they exerted over Syria for so long.

Yeah. And the and the bloody aftermath of that control. I mean, they they were the ones in 2012. I remember, during the civil war there being in this small town where the tanks and the heavy machine guns were arraigned against a civilian population. We managed to get out before the before they started shooting, those heavy weapons, but that came and it lasted what we've seen over over 12 years.

You know, the toll that Assad has left behind has been documented. I mean, his forces documented it. There was the famous case of a, police military photographer from 1 of the jails. He he went by the pseudonym of Caesar. He left the country, got asylum, outside of Syria, and he took with him a catalog of photographs, about 10,000 photographs that literally catalog more than 6,000 deaths in Assad's jails.

So the, accounts, if you will, the documents that could be used to put Assad in court 1 day to be held account for for his crimes are there. And the use of chemical weapons, the use of chlorine gas back in 2,018 and numerous other times, That time killing 43 people, the use of the deadly nerve agent, Sarin, 2017. Just a few years ago, Assad, the leader of a country, dropping a deadly nerve agent on on his citizens, killing more than 90 of them. These are all documented. The evidence is there, and that he could literally 1 day face that in court.

And that's something he'll be thinking about all through, his remaining years in exile.

Yeah. No doubt about that. Nick Robertson in London, thank you very much for that reporting. I'd like to bring in a former NATO supreme allied commander general Wesley Clark. General, thanks so much for joining us.

We left you last night. This was all really unfolding. And now here we are 24 hours later, and the Assad regime has officially fallen. What do you make of where we stand right now?

Well, I think, right now, the question is really what what's gonna happen there in Damascus and in the rest of Syria because there are contending factions. The Syrian Democratic Forces that we're supporting and US forces on the south as president Biden made a lot of strikes against ISIS. Those Syrian Democratic Forces are gonna try to expand their, their reach. The Kurds are gonna be very, very concerned about what happens because, this HTS group has had backing from Turkey. And President Erdogan was the first, of national leaders who said, when this was all unfolding a couple of days ago, he says, Well, I hope that everyone will get out of the way and, and support them.

So he's behind this group. And that's not good news for the Kurds, but President Erdogan and Turkiye have always had larger ambitions to stabilize this region and to do more. On the 1 hand, that could be helpful. And on the other hand, it will bring its own challenges and, rivalries from other regional powers. And, all that's going to play out because, it, it would be very surprising if ATS has a constitutional game plan to, to call the UN and, supervise some elections, elected parliament and so forth.

I hope it happens, but it would be really remarkable if it does. Instead, what's likely to happen is, 1 party rule, behind the scenes, cutting deals of some people will be cut out. The real question is, what about these terrorists that are being held in North East Syria? For goodness sake, if they get released, that's a whole another level of challenge for the United States and and and for the region. So, there are many, many uncertainties in this.

1 thing though, Jessica, is President Biden did take credit for this and his support of Israel and the way that the United States has handled it. And there's no doubt that the weakening of Iran, the weakening of Hezbollah, and so forth, Israel's actions have enabled, this to occur. As far as Russia is concerned, I suspect that the president Erdogan, president Putin have got this worked out. The the naval base will stay there. The terrorists won't bother the Russians.

This gives, actually for president Erdogan, it's good. He's got a little hold card to play, with mister Putin if he has to because, through his influence in this regime, if he has that influence. And again, we don't know that for sure. But he can, you know, turn the screws on mister Putin on those naval bases and and, in the airfield when he wants to. And so, in this region, everybody's talking to everybody all of the time at various levels.

So, there's a lot more to to see as this unravels.

I'm joined now by Danny Mackey. He's a Syrian journalist and analyst who's covered the conflict for the Middle East Institute. Danny, thanks so much for joining us. You're in Damascus right now. What have these past 24 hours been like?

Well, they've been historic, the perspective of anyone who has

Danny, I think you're free.

Has actually viewed what's happened over the previous period. And for from my perspective, being in Syria and actually watching what's happening is super it's historic because what we've seen for a country that's been through so much war and pain to actually come together and remove this regime, which has been here for over 60 years, it's something quite significant. And against all odds because the whole world has kind of come together just to, destroy the hopes and dreams of the Syrian people. And now what we're seeing is a country reunited again in a different different mode. Now where everyone is coming together, there are so many different challenges which, the Syrian people together can face, and Assad is out of the picture.

He's no longer in the country.

And before we talk about that different mode and what's ahead for Syria, did anyone in Syria have any sense that the Assad regime would crumble this quickly?

No 1 envisaged this. This was something completely unique. It was something that not 1 analyst or pundit would have even thought that was possible of happening because Assad was really in a lead position. He was in Idlib. He was literally closing in on Idlib.

You know, he was gonna finish the military side of the conflict, but, you know, wars are just not about winning battles and you have to win the peace. You have to win hearts and minds. And in a country where you haven't found a solution to a root cause problem, you really need to make sure that you're not complacent. And Assad got complacent. You know?

He took put too much faith in his allies, in the Iranians, in the Russians, in Hezbollah. Hezbollah was absolutely damaged by the the Israelis. The Iranians have just constantly been keeping, just losses in the region in every single way. The Russians have their own quagmire in in Ukraine. So all of Assad's allies are facing huge, you know, major problems the to their own security.

So none of them were able to actually step in and help him. So what that did was put extra pressure on the Syrian army, an army which is based on conscription. And Assad, in the last 2 years, issued a number of different rules which actually, made sure that many of the conscripts were new. So Assad was sending new fighters to the front lines against groups such as h, HTS, Tahir al Sham, which were seasoned experienced fighters, and they were just getting smashed in Aleppo. And that's what triggered this collapse.

That's really interesting insight. So, as you know, Assad was ousted by this coalition of rebel groups. Some of them linked historically to Al Qaeda, and the rebel leader at the moment appears to be Abu Mohammed Al Jalani. He talked exclusively to CNN's Jamana, Karache about his goal now for Syria. So listen to this.

Once an Al Qaeda leader, your group has had affiliation with Al Qaeda, with ISIS, and now you are projecting this image of a moderate leader and a moderate group. What is HTS right

now? Hayat Tahrir Sham is 1 of the factions in the region just like all the others. Now we're talking about a larger project. We're talking about building Syria. Hayat Tahrir Sham is merely 1 detail of this dialog, and it may dissolve at any time.

It's not an end in itself, but a means to perform a task confronting this regime.

So, Danny, when you hear that, do you have confidence that this group won't just usher in a new era of violence or some different type of authoritarian rule?

Well, typically, you'd say that gonna change it by the end of the day. But what we've seen, especially in locations such as Aleppo, is the decline of these radical sentiments where, you know, you have a lot of minorities in Aleppo. It's an area which has a lot of, it it it's far more diverse than other places in Syria. And, hey, Ittahir al Sham have been Aleppo been very, positive with the minorities. And massacres or, you know, taking out minorities.

So what we could definitely say is that there is a behavioral change even if even if it might be minimal. But in Damascus, Hama, Homs, we haven't seen this from other minorities. The city of Salamiyah is an Ismaili city. It's in the eastern side of Hama, and it's an area which fought ISIS and Japhet al Nusra for a number of years. Hayat al Harid al Sham didn't even go near Selah Media.

They reached some sort of agreement with the notables of the These are what have actually led Hayat al Harid al Sham.

Danny, Danny, we're having obviously some technical issues because you're in Damascus, but thank you for the insight. That has been so interesting to get your perspective on the ground there, and we'll talk again.

Thank

you so much.