Syria opposition forces have declared that the 24-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad has come to an end, hours after fighters entered the capital, Damascus, following a lightning advance across the country.
In a statement broadcast live on Syrian national television on Sunday, a group of fighters said the “tyrant al-Assad has been toppled” and that all prisoners have been freed from a major prison facility in Damascus.
The opposition said al-Assad, whose family ruled Syria for more than 50 years, had fled the capital.
The Syrian war started as a largely unarmed uprising against al-Assad in March 2011, but morphed into a full-blown war that dragged in foreign powers, killed hundreds of thousands of people and turned millions into refugees.
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