Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country after a stunning rebel offensive that captured the capital Damascus and toppled the dynasty that ruled for 50 years.

Amid jubilant scenes, rebels announced Sunday that “the city of Damascus is free of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad” and that “Assad has fled” after various factions surrounded the capital.

Russia, a long-time supporter of the Assad regime, said the Syrian president had resigned, left the country and ordered a peaceful transfer of power. Russian state news channel Tass later said he and his family had arrived in Moscow where they had been offered asylum.

“The future is ours,” Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of the victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, said in a statement read on Syrian state television.

HTS, once an affiliate of al-Qaeda, led various rebel groups in a 12-day lightning offensive that brought an ignominious end to the Assad dynasty and rocked the region. Last week, the group captured Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, within 48 hours before quickly marching south toward the capital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed a “historic day in the annals of the Middle East” but sent tanks and infantry into the demilitarized buffer zone on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.

Netanyahu said a 1974 ceasefire agreement “failed” after Syrian army units abandoned their positions and Israeli forces had to “ensure that no enemy force establishes itself directly on the border with Israel.”

US President-elect Donald Trump wrote in a social media post: “Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was no longer interested in protecting him.” He added: “Russia and Iran are currently in a weakened state , on the one hand because of Ukraine and a poor economy, and on the other hand because of Israel and its fighting success.”

In Damascus, rebel groups tried to restore law and order on Sunday, imposing a curfew, warning of legal penalties for theft and misdirected shooting, taking over ministries and deploying police officers while looting took place.

The Financial Times, when inquiring about media access to the city after the curfew, was directed to a new Ministry of Communications building where insurgent media figures had set up shop.

In a sign of his efforts to ensure an orderly transition, Jolani said Syria’s state institutions would remain under the supervision of the Assad-appointed prime minister until a change of power.

Near the city’s Umayyad Square, the streets were littered with thousands of bullet casings – remnants of celebratory gunfire. Even in the evening, artillery shelling and isolated shots could still be heard in the center of Damascus.

“I can’t believe it. Everyone is on the streets, everyone is screaming,” said Abdallah, a Damascus resident. “It’s something historical. No one has suffered as much as the Syrian people.”

Videos sent to the Financial Times by a Damascus resident showed people in the presidential palace ransacking rooms and smashing pictures of the Assad family.

On Sunday morning, a man in civilian clothes appeared on Syrian state television and declared that the rebels had “liberated” Damascus and released prisoners from “regime prisons.”

But while the news sparked jubilation across Syria, it will also usher in a period of great uncertainty for a country and the entire region shattered and fractured by 13 years of civil war.

The country borders Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. HTS works with Turkish-backed rebels operating under the umbrella of the Syrian National Army.

However, there are countless factions in Syria and the degree of coordination between them all is unclear.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan welcomed the end of the Assad regime on Sunday, but also warned that Ankara was worried that “Isis and other terrorist organizations…” . will benefit from this process.”

An Arab diplomat said regional powers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Russia and Qatar, had agreed to coordinate their efforts to stabilize the situation.

As the rebels entered the palace in Damascus, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said he was ready to work with any popularly elected leadership and called for unity.

“We are ready to cooperate and all the property of the people and the institutions of the Syrian state must be preserved,” he said. “They belong to all Syrians.”

At around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, several explosions were heard in the city, with clouds of black smoke rising above them. At least some of the attacks, whose origins were unknown, hit the Syrian security complex.

Assad, a London-trained ophthalmologist, had ruled Syria since 2000, when he succeeded his late father Hafez al-Assad. Civil war broke out in 2011 after its forces brutally suppressed a popular uprising.

He managed to stay in power with the support of Iran and Russia, which had vital air power. His regime had regained control of most of the country in recent years.

But he ruled a hollowed-out, bankrupt state, and even many members of his own Alawite community appeared to have given up on the regime after years of conflict and economic hardship.

When HTS launched its offensive on November 27, the regime’s forces appeared to be fading away while Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant movement, were all distracted by their own conflicts.

The rebels’ success is a humiliating blow to Iran, whose support for Assad had given it a “land bridge” across Syria to Lebanon, home of its main proxy, Hezbollah.

On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry urged respect for Syria’s “territorial integrity” and called for “an immediate end to military conflicts” in the Arab state.

It is also a setback for Russia, which gained access to air and naval bases in the Mediterranean after entering the war in 2015.

On Sunday, Russia said its military bases in Syria were “on high alert.” Moscow said there was “no serious threat to their security,” but Russian military bloggers said it was preparing to evacuate its Khmeimim air base and its naval base in Tartus.

John Foreman, a former British defense attaché in Moscow, said the loss of the bases would be “a major strategic about-face” for Russia and without them it would be “more difficult for the Russian navy to maintain a sustained maritime presence in the Mediterranean or Red Sea.” to challenge NATO.”

Additional reporting by Max Seddon in Berlin, John Paul Rathbone in London and Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv

Cartography by Steven Bernard