Ousted president Bashar al-Assad broke his silence yesterday after fleeing Syria, saying in a statement that he only left once Damascus had fallen and denounced the country's new leaders as "terrorists".
Assad fled to Russia just over a week ago, as a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) wrested from his control city after city until the rebels reached the Syrian capital.
The collapse of Assad's rule stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 sparked one of the deadliest wars of the century.
Rooted in Syria's branch of al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western governments as a terrorist organization, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric and pledged to protect the country's religious minorities.
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