Frontline report: Inside Damascus as rebels seize power and Assad flees | BBC News (youtube.com)
Assad fled to Moscow where Putin gave him asylum, reportedly, but no reliable source has been able to confirm who was on the plane or where it was going, the 2am plane that departed Damascus during the taking of the capitol. The plane's radar-tracked path was unusual. It headed to one place, then another (Homs, which had been taken by rebels recently), then makes a sudden 2-minute U-turn then the plane records an altitude anomaly (20k to 1600 feet) and disappears at 2:40am. Reuters initially reported that Assad may have died in a plane crash, but removed the report, and Reuters later published a more cautious report noting that the transponder could have just been shut off so the plane could go to a private location.
Some less-than-dilligent news, like India Today, published an image of a plane on the ground in flames, but image search showed that image was from an Indian plane some time ago.
There is no plane wreckage that's been reported around Homs.
TASS and other authoritative Russian news reported Assad and family had arrived in Moscow, citing the Kremlin. Later, other news published an image of Assad and his wife and reported that it was the first image of the family in Moscow, but image search showed it was an old image. Funny they use old images rather than AI images, so far, to get clicks and spread false info.
24-year rule.
After 8 years of not fighting (after Assad regained control of Damascas in 2016), Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, who had been refuged in the north of the country, took over Aleppo November 30 and quickly advanced on Damascus. Russian aircraft bombed rebel-held areas, trying to combat them. Iraqi forces were sent to help Assad, and US bombed these groups in Syria.
In Syria, ‘the difference between real and fake is determined only by the authority telling you which is which.’ CaspianReport, who practices left-right-bias news analysis (to combat bias).