Bashar al-Assad left Damascus on a plane on Sunday as the Syrian rebels announced on TV that they have ended the 24-year rule of the Alawite dynasty.
The Syrian rebels' first announcement on state television comes after a Syrian officer quoted by Reuters revealed that the army command notified them that the Assad regime ended.
Is Bashar al-Assad DEAD?
Flightradar website showed that a Syrian Air flight left Damascus airport close to the time when the rebels reportedly captured the country's capital.
The aircraft was first seen flying towards Syrian coastal region, the Alawite sect's centre of power. However, the flight subsequently took a U-turn and flew in the opposite direction, according to Flightradar.
Interestingly, the plane vanished from the map after the abrupt U-turn. Though the passengers could not be identified, but two Syrian sources quoted by Reuters said there was high probability that Assad might have been killed in a plane crash.
One of the sources suggested that there is a possibility that the transponder was turned off but gave bigger probability for the aircraft being taken down in a strike.
After the rebels captured Damascus, Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali extended support to the ensure continuity of governance and cooperation with the new leadership.
Mazloum Abdi who heads the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that it is a historic moment in
Syria as the authoritarian regime in Damascus falls, adding that this is an opportunity to build a new Syria founded on democracy and justice, ensuring the rights of all Syrians.
