BASHAR al-Assad has broken his silence to claim Vladimir Putin forced him into a cowardly escape from Syria – but he wanted to stay and fight.
The ousted tyrant released a statement from Moscow, insisting he had to flee after the Russian base he was hiding in began to be bombed.
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Assad dished out fighting talk from the safety of his bolthole in the Russian capital, saying the only course of action had been to stay and fight – before he then left.
The statement was published today on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel and was Assad’s first public comment since he was toppled more than a week ago by a lightning rebel offensive.
The despot said he stayed in the capital until the early hours of Sunday 8 December before “terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus”.
He then claimed he moved to the Russian air base in Latakia, named Khmeimim, to oversee his army fighting the rebels.
But just hours later the base itself came under attack from drone strikes, he alleged.
Assad said: “Upon arrival at the Khmeimim airbase that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen.”
He claimed those inside could not safely leave the base and remain in Syria, so Russia called for it to be evacuated.
The dictator said: “At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by an individual party.
“The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”
Assad went on to claim he refused to negotiate on the war to keep himself in power.
In a bizarre section of the statement, he spoke about himself in the third person as he boasted about his own loyalty.
Assad said: “He is the same person who, during the darkest years of the war, did not leave but remained with his family alongside his people, confronting terrorism under bombardment and the recurring threats of terrorist incursions into the capital over 14 years of war.
“The person who has never abandoned the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, nor betrayed his allies who stood by him, cannot possibly be the same person who would forsake his own people or betray the army and nation to which he belongs.”
Assad said, despite being in Moscow, that he had not lost or diminished his sense of belonging to Syria.
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Incredibly, the ousted dictator left the door open for a return, saying he hoped Syria would be “once again free and independent”.
It is not yet clear exactly how Assad made it out of Damascus, but Reuters reported that the tyrant kept his escape plan secret.
Assad didn’t even tell some of his closest family, with one of his cousins shot dead by rebels in an ambush trying to flee Damascus.
He continued to act like he would stay and fight – even meeting with army chiefs hours before he escaped, telling them to keep fighting and that Russia was coming to help.
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Assad told his staff at the end of Saturday when he finished work that he was going home.
He even told his media adviser to come to his home and write a speech.
But when she got there, she didn’t find the tyrant, who had instead fled to the airport.
It appears that Assad then spent several hours at the airport in Damascus before he flew to the Russian airbase.
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Assad’s maternal cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, were also left in the dark as Damascus fell to the rebels.
The pair tried to flee in a car, but rebels ambushed them, shooting Ehab dead and wounding Eyad.
Rebels inside the Damascus home of Assad’s brother Maher found tunnels and living quarters underneath.
A fully kitted-out kitchen complete with Pepsi cans and Tetley tea, a modern sitting room and bathroom, and discarded shopping bags could be seen in footage.
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Maher wound up flying a helicopter himself to Iraq as he also fled the country.
Assad sent tonnes of cash to Russia in the years before his overthrow, reportedly valued at £200m in hard currency.
Records show tonnes of cash being sent from Damascus to Moscow between 2018 and 2019, the FT reports.
The payments came at a time when Assad’s regime was being propped up by Russia’s fighter jets and the Wagner mercenary group.
Once the cash was shifted, Assad’s family also began buying up luxury properties in Moscow as well as paying for food and military help.
Since Assad’s escape from the country, rebels have found horrific death camps at prisons where thousands were executed.
One book appeared to show the names of 29,000 people killed at the “slaughterhouse” Sednaya prison.
Dozens of dead bodies were also discovered by rebels when they overtook the horror jail.
Rebels opened the gates and set detainees free but found some locked away in secret cells.
The Assad Dynasty
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THE Assad dynasty in Syria began with Hafez al-Assad – who seized power in 1971 through a military coup and established an authoritarian regime.
His rule focused on centralised government control, military strength, suppression of dissent, aligning Syria closely with the Soviet Union, and an anti-Israel stance.
He established a cult of personality and corruption flourished as loyalty to Hafez became the most important value.
Bashar was not the first choice to succeed his father, with his elder son Bassel groomed to take over the role.
Bashar was working as an ophthalmologist at Western Eye Hospital in London when Bassel died in a car crash in 1994.
Suddenly, Bashar became the heir apparent and was called back to Damascus to be groomed for leadership.
He spent six and a half years learning the ropes from his father and working in the military.
Hafez died from a heart attack in 2000 and, with the loyalty of his party, transferred power to Bashar establishing the first Arab dynastic republic.
Initially, there were hopes for liberal reforms under Bashar, but hopes faded as he instead continued his father’s repressive policies.
When protesters rose up in 2011, Assad brutally sought to crush them with harsh violence.
But, he lost the support of many of his people and brought about the Syrian Civil War.
In 2013, the cruel dictator even used chemical weapons on rebel areas as he did anything to stay in power.
The civil war dragged on killing hundreds of thousands, destroying cities, and opening the way for ISIS to flourish.
Eventually, Assad gained the upper hand after Iran sent in Hezbollah crack forces and Russia sent in jets to bomb rebels and mercenary group Wagner to fight them.
It appeared that Assad was on the brink of winning the war earlier this year with the rebels confined to an area in the northwest of the country.
Assad chose not to negotiate with the rebels and instead sought to defeat them completely.
But the rebels launched a surprise offensive on November 27 and swept aside Assad’s corrupt and disloyal army.
After seizing Damascus in a swift and decisive offensive, rebel forces declared victory and announced that the city was “free of Assad.”
The dictator fled Syria in total humiliation – having to issue a statement through the Russians he had resigned the presidency and left the country.
Bashar has now been given refuge in Moscow and is currently under Russian protection.
The collapse of the 54-year-old Assad dynasty ignited celebrations across Syria.
In the capital, thousands poured into the streets, waving rebel flags and lighting flares.
Statues of Assad and his late father, Hafez, were toppled in symbolic acts of defiance.
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