Bashar Assad accepted Russia's offer to leave Syria and fly to Moscow

Russian intelligence officers helped former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad leave the country and fly to Moscow. The officers organized his safe passage to the Russian Khmeimim airbase in Latakia province, Bloomberg reports citing sources.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Adrian Pingstone Arpingstone, https://creativecommons.org/public-domain/pdm/

Aircraft

Assad's plane was flying from Damascus to Khmeimim with its transponders turned off not to be either tracked or hit.

Russia decided to rescue Assad from Syria because Moscow did not want him to die like Gaddafi died in Libya (Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was lynched, his body was mutilated).

Russia convinced Assad that he would lose the battle against the rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and offered him and his family an immediate and safe escape, to which Assad agreed.

Bashar al-Assad left Syria on December 8. Unnamed high-ranking officers in the Syrian army said that he boarded a plane and took off from Damascus. According to Flightradar 24, the plane disappeared from radar screens soon after takeoff.

It was later reported that Assad arrived in Moscow on the evening of December 8.