Outsed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has arrived in Moscow and been granted asylum with his family, according to Russian media.
It comes just hours after a rebel advance took over Damascus on Sunday and ended the Assad family’s 50-year rule of the country.
al-Assad gave orders for a peaceful handover of power before leaving.
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Footage showed al-Assad’s Damascus residence had been stormed and almost emptied by looters.
Rebels also flung open detention facilities where it was estimated at least 100,000 people were considered missing or forcibly disappeared since 2011 at the hands of the state.
Sednaya military prison was among those facilities, known as the site of brutal and humiliating methods of torture.
Rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said in a statement on Syria’s state TV that there is no room for turning back and “The future is ours.”
The Syrian foreign ministry said, “A new page is being written in the history of Syria”, as the country has endured nearly 14 years of civil war.
“Syrian brothers: today, a new page is being written in the history of Syria, to inaugurate a national covenant and charter that unites the word of the Syrians, unites them and does not divide them, in order to build one homeland in which justice and equality prevail and in which everyone enjoys all rights and duties, far from one opinion,” the statement read.
“The Ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates of the Syrian Arab republic and its diplomatic missions abroad will remain committed to serving all fellow citizens and managing their affairs, based on the trust they bear in representing the Syrian people, and that the homeland remains supreme.”
A curfew has been declared in Damascus, where people continue to celebrate in the streets, from 4pm until 5am.