The grave of the father of deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was set on fire by rebel fighters after they stormed his mausoleum today.
Photos show fighters standing next to Hafez al-Assad’s burning grave in the family’s ancestral village of Qardaha, in the western province of Latakia.
The burning grave was then dragged outside the mausoleum and left behind by the armed rebels, other footage shows.
Hafez al-Assad, the deposed president’s father and predecessor, died in 2000.
He seized power in 1970 and was the architect of modern Syria, creating a system of divide and rule to maintain his power.
The burning of Hafez’s grave comes after his son fled Syria following a lightning offensive led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies.
Syrians across the country and around the world have erupted in celebration after enduring five decades of rule by his clan, with anyone suspected of dissent being thrown in jail or killed.
Many have traveled to the infamous Sednaya prison near Damascus, nicknamed the “human slaughterhouse,” in the hope of finding long-lost relatives.
Rebel fighters stand next to the burning grave of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad at his mausoleum
Rebels stormed the mausoleum today and set fire to Hafez al-Assad’s grave
A rebel fighter walks past the burning coffin of late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad outside his mausoleum
The prison was the epicenter of this systematic terror, where large numbers of prisoners were subjected to all kinds of inhumane treatment and executed.
Dark images and footage released this week showed shocked rescuers pulling dozens and dozens of body bags containing rotting corpses from the depths of the facility.
But there are dozens of other facilities across the country where the victims of the Assad regime were made to suffer and die.
The country’s new prime minister said the Islamist-led alliance will “guarantee” the rights of all religious groups and called on the millions who have fled the war to return home.
“Precisely because we are Islamic, we will guarantee the rights of all people and all sects in Syria,” said Mohammad al-Bashir, who was appointed by the rebels as the transitional government.
Asked whether Syria’s new constitution would be Islamic, he told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that “we will clarify all these details during the constitutional process.”
Bashir, whose appointment was announced on Tuesday, is tasked with leading the multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian country until March 1.
Syrian President Hafez al-Assad with his wife Anisa Makhlouf and daughter Bushra on June 4, 1974
Rebel fighters pose for a photo outside the mausoleum of late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in the family’s ancestral village of Qardaha
Pictured: Syrian rebels burn and destroy Hafez al-Assad’s mausoleum
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (right), his brother Maher (left) and brother-in-law Major General Assef Shawka during the funeral of Hafez al-Assad
Although Assad had faced protests and an armed uprising for more than a decade, it was a lightning offensive on November 27 that finally forced him from power.
The rebels launched their offensive from northwestern Syria on the same day a ceasefire came into effect in the war between Israel and Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
That war, which killed thousands of people in Lebanon, left Israel inflicting staggering losses among Hezbollah’s ranks.
Moscow confirmed today that it has smuggled Assad from Syria to Russia.
Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, claimed that Assad had been transported to Moscow “in the safest possible way” after the sudden and dramatic collapse of his dictatorship last weekend.
Speak with NBC NewsMr Ryabkov said: “It has been secured and it shows that Russia is acting as required in such an extraordinary situation.”
He said he had “no idea what was going on with him at this point” and added that it would be “very wrong for me to elaborate on what happened and how it was resolved.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pictured with Vladimir Putin in 2018
Abu Mohammed al-Golani speaks at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Sunday, December 8
Russia was Assad’s key ally during Syria’s long civil war and they helped maintain his family’s brutal dynasty, which ruled Syria for more than fifty years.
Human rights groups have previously accused Assad of war crimes – such as using chemical weapons against civilians – but Ryabkov ruled out extraditing the leader for trial.
“Russia is not a party to the convention that established the International Criminal Court,” he said.