President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia on December 8, leaving behind many of his collaborators, some of whom sought refuge in neighbouring countries [GETTY]
A lightning rebel offensive early this month caught Syria’s ruling clan off guard.
President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia on 8 December, leaving behind many of his collaborators, some of whom sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
According to two sources, the ousted president, who fled to Moscow via the Russian military airfield in Hmeimim on Syria’s coast, was accompanied by only a handful of confidants.
Among them were his closest ally, the secretary-general of presidential affairs, Mansour Azzam, and his economic adviser, Yassar Ibrahim, who oversees the financial empire of Assad and his wife, Asma.
“He left with his secretary and his treasurer,” an insider who requested anonymity said, mockingly.
Bashar’s brother, Maher al-Assad, commander of the elite Fourth Division tasked with defending Damascus, did not know about his sibling’s plans.
Leaving his men stranded, Maher took a separate route, fleeing by helicopter to Iraq before travelling to Russia, according to a Syrian military source.
An Iraqi security source told AFP that Maher arrived in Iraq by plane on 7 December and stayed there for five days.
Maher’s wife, Manal al-Jadaan and his son briefly entered Lebanon before departing through Beirut airport, said Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, without disclosing their final destination.
Another Assad government heavyweight, Ali Mamlouk, the former chief of Syria’s security apparatus, fled to Russia via Iraq, said a Syrian military source.
His son passed through Lebanon before leaving for another destination, according to a Lebanese security source.
‘Wanted’
The Iraqi Interior Ministry denied on Monday the presence of either Maher al-Assad or Mamlouk in Iraq. Both are wanted men.
Maher and Bashar al-Assad are wanted by France for alleged complicity in war crimes over chemical attacks in Syria in August 2013.
The French courts have already sentenced Mamlouk and Jamil Hassan, former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, in absentia to life imprisonment for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On Friday, the Lebanese authorities received an Interpol alert relaying a US request to arrest Hassan and hand him over to the US authorities should he enter the country.
The United States accuses Hassan of “war crimes”, including overseeing barrel bomb attacks on Syrian people that killed thousands of civilians.
A Lebanese judicial source told AFP they had no confirmation of Hassan’s presence in Lebanon but assured that he would be detained if found.
Last-minute escapes
Other prominent figures also made hasty escapes.
Bouthaina Shaaban, a former translator for Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father who founded the brutal system of government his son inherited, fled to Lebanon on the night of 7 – 8 December.
Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad’s long-time political adviser, then travelled to Abu Dhabi, according to a friend in Beirut.
Kifah Mujahid, head of the Baath Brigades, the military wing of Syria’s former ruling party, escaped to Lebanon by boat, a party source told AFP.
Other officials took refuge in their hometowns in the Alawite region, and some of them told the AFP. Assad hailed from Syria’s Alawite minority.
Not all escape attempts were successful.
Ihab Makhlouf, Bashar al-Assad’s cousin and a prominent businessman, was killed on 7 December while trying to flee Damascus.
His twin brother, Iyad, was injured in the same incident, said a military official from the former government.
Their elder sibling, Rami Makhlouf, once considered Syria’s richest man and a symbol of the regime’s corruption, managed to survive. Rami, who fell out of favour with the Assad regime years ago, is believed to be in the United Arab Emirates.
Several other figures close to Assad’s government crossed into Lebanon, according to a security source and a source in the business world. These included Ghassan Belal, head of Maher’s office, and businessmen Mohammed Hamsho, Khalid Qaddur, Samer Debs and Samir Hassan.
A former Lebanese minister with close ties to Syria said that several senior Syrian military officers were granted safe passage by the Russians to the Hmeimim airbase.
They were rewarded for instructing their troops not to resist the rebel offensive to avoid further bloodshed, he said.
