DELIGHT IN SYRIA AS REBELS FORCE ASSAD TO FLEE TO RUSSIA

JOY erupted in Syria as dictator Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow after rebel militias ended his 24-year reign of terror yesterday.

- Giles Sheldrick

Thousands poured on to the streets chanting "Assad is gone" as the army collapsed and the former president begged his ally Russia for asylum.

His barbaric regime was toppled in a lightning attack by Islamists on the Syrian capital Damascus, forcing out Assad and his family including his London-born wife Asma.

What follows the coup has the world watching nervously as players in the powderkeg Middle East vie for supremacy amid fears that leaderless Syria may erupt again in full-blown civil war.

Col Richard Kemp, a decorated ex-Army commander, said that "could see Syria becoming an Afghanistan-style base for global jihad", and added: "Rebels will have access to massive weapons stockpiles including chemical weapons, tanks and planes."

Other experts pointed to Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and Libya following the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 both triggered years of civil war.

Tobias Ellwood, former Tory MP and Defence Select Committee chairman, said: "What Syria needs is a short-term technocratic government to stabilise the situation. Get it wrong and the country risks imploding. The consequences of failure would be felt far beyond Syria's borders."

Amid the chaos, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is emerging as a successor to Assad's regime. Its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said on Syrian state TV there was "no room" for turning back and added "the future is ours".

Set up in 2011 as a direct affiliate of the terror group al-Qaeda under the name Jabhat al-Nusra, it is considered a terrorist group by the UN and the US.

Scores of people parading the Syrian opposition's flag embraced, and celebrated Assad's downfall under plumes of red and green smoke in Trafalgar Square. There were similar scenes of delight in Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast with some Syrian refugees already talking of returning home.