TOPSHOT - Fighters fire towards Syrian Army troops in the Rashidin district on the outskirts of Aleppo on Nov. 29, 2024. The more than 50-year Assad dynastic dictatorship was on the cusp of collapse on Sunday, as rebel forces seized the capital of Damascus in a lightning offensive that has swept the country's largest cities in a matter of days. "We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad," Hassan Abdul-Ghani, senior HTS commander, said in a post on WhatsApp. The whereabouts of President Bashar al-Assad, who assumed leadership in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez, were uncertain. Multiple media reports, which CNBC could not independently confirm, state he has fled Damascus.

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Persons: Assad, Bashar al, Hassan Abdul, Ghani, Hafez, Ghazi al, Jalali, Syria Geir Pedersen, Joe Biden, Sean Savett Organizations: Fighters, Syrian Army, Security, CNBC, NBC News, U.S, White House National Security Locations: Rashidin, Aleppo, Damascus, Russia, Iran, Hama, Deir el, Free Syria, Syrian, Syria