Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted from power early on Sunday in a stunning bloodless coup by Islamist rebels who took control of Damascus, the Syrian capital after a 13-year civil war that has caused more than 500,000 deaths and forced millions of Syrians to leave their homeland.
The rebels, who are called the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters, moved swiftly, entering Damascus and taking over the city as government military fled, hours after Assad had absconded.
The rebels’ fast-paced offensive was facilitated by a changing geopolitical scenario in which Assad was no longer able to rely on support from Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, according to several analysts.
State TV in Iran, which has been Assad’s main backer in recent years, reported that Assad had left the Syrian capital for an undisclosed location, while Syrian state television aired a video statement saying that he had been overthrown and that all detainees in the country’s jails, many of whom were political prisoners, have been set free.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali, who at present remains in place, said in a video statement that he is ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition forces and turn over power to a transitional government.
In the film community, Syrian filmmakers on the front lines have played a crucial role in raising global awareness of the Syrian civil war beyond the din of TV news. They include Waad Al-Kateab, co-director of Oscar-nominated civil war diary “For Sama” that traveled around the world; veteran auteur Ossama Mohammed, whose “Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait” screened at Cannes in 2014 and bore witness to the horrors of civil war using cellphone footage sent to him by hundreds of Syrians; and outgoing International Documentary Festival Amsterdam chief Orwa Nyrabia and his wife Syrian director Diana El Jeiroudi, whose non-conventional doc “Republic of Silence” depicted the turmoil of Syria’s uprising seen from the outside.
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