Russian government has granted asylum to the deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family, according to the state media.
Sequel to the overthrow of the erstwhile Syrian leader, there had been speculation about his whereabouts.
The news agency Reuters cited two unnamed senior Syrian army officers as saying that Assad had boarded a Syrian Air plane at Damascus airport early on Sunday.
Russia has been a staunch ally of Assad’s, and had previously intervened in the civil war in Syria in an effort to keep him in power – the BBC’s Russia editor Steve Rosenberg says.
The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency session later today to discuss the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.
The meeting was requested by Russia, which is reported to have offered asylum to Assad and his family in Moscow.
“Streets are deserted [and] shops are closed” on the streets of Damascus this morning, with Syrians apprehensive about the future, says a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Suhair Zakkout, who is in the Syrian capital, tells BBC World Service Radio’s Newsday programme that civilians have “a million unanswered questions” about what happens next.
“People are living in fear,” she says, “Will they be able to get back to their normal lives? Will their kids go to school tomorrow?”
“The changes have been happening so fast and rapidly”. – BBC
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