Syria's deposed President Bashar al-Assad releases statement on social media

Syria's deposed president released a statement on Monday, his first since being overthrown, claiming that he remained in Damascus until the early morning of December 8 and left the country only in the evening.

The description of the statement published on the Facebook page of the former presidency said that "after several unsuccessful attempts to release the statement through Arabic and international media outlets, the only viable option was to publish it on the social media accounts of the former presidency."

"My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed. On the contrary, I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday, December 8, 2024," Bashar al-Assad said in the statement

The deposed president said he arrived at a Russian military base in Latakia "to oversee combat operations" after HTS entered Damascus, and Moscow only requested the base's immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8 December when the base came under intensified attack by drone strikes.