Welcome back to our live coverage of the rebel offensive that appears to have succeeded in toppling the Syrian government led by longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Here are the latest developments:

• Rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Damascus have declared the Syrian capital “free” of Assad, while government forces withdrew their presence.

• In the capital’s central square, people climbed tanks and cheered as they trampled on a toppled statue of Assad’s father Hafez.

• The Syrian rebel coalition said it was continuing to work to complete the transfer of power in Syria to an interim government body with full executive powers.

• Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to an interim government. “I am in my house and I have not left it, and that is because I belong to this country,” Jalili said.

• The Syrian army command told officials on Sunday that Assad’s regime had ended, Reuters reports. But the Syrian army later said it was continuing operations against “terrorist groups” in the key cities of Hama and Homs and in the surrounding areas of Deraa.

• Assad, who has ruled the country for nearly 25 years, reportedly left Damascus by plane to an unknown destination.

• US President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Assad had “fled his country” after losing support from Russia. “Assad is gone,” he said on his Truth Social platform. “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was no longer interested in protecting him.”

• Outgoing US President Joe Biden and his team are monitoring the “extraordinary events in Syria” and are in contact with regional partners, the White House said.

• As armed rebels swept through cities across the country, they tore up detention facilities where human rights groups estimated at least 100,000 people were missing or forcibly disappeared by the state since 2011. This included the Sednaya military prison, a facility known to be the site of particularly brutal and degrading torture methods.

• Iraq has reportedly evacuated its embassy in Syria and relocated staff to Lebanon, hours after rebels toppled Assad and seized control of the capital. The reasons for the evacuation were not made public.