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Russian troops in Syria have denied claims by Syria's former dictator Bashar Al Assad that his exit to Moscow was conducted from the Hmeimim airbase at Moscow's behest.
In his first statement since being deposed a week ago, Mr Al Assad said on Monday he had "not planned" to leave Syria. His exit to Moscow, where he and his family were granted asylum, came after a 12-day lightning offensive led by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) rebel group, which left Syrian regime soldiers abandoning their posts and officials scrambling to leave the country.
In the statement, which was released on the Syrian Presidency Telegram channel on Monday, Mr Al Assad said he had moved from Damascus to the port city of Latakia, where the Russian base he was in came under fire. "With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December," said the statement.
However, a representative for the Russian military at the Hmeimim base told The National: “Bashar Al Assad was not on the Hmeimim airbase.” No security officials left via the airbase, they added. “People arriving to Russia had not come from the base.”
Mr Assad said he left the day after the fall of Damascus and once all state institutions had fallen into rebel hands. "At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught," his statement read.
Mr Al Assad's fall ended his 24-year rule and a 14-year civil war sparked by brutal clampdowns on popular protests in 2011. He took over power from his father Hafez Al Assad in 2000, maintaining his grip through wide-scale arrests of dissidents and ordinary Syrians.
In the week since he was ousted, evidence of the regime's brutality is emerging, as political prisoners gain freedom from notorious jails and the huge scale of a drug-making and export operation launched to pay the country's bills have been revealed. Mr Al Assad said his position as leader of Syria had become untenable, railing against the "terrorism" of HTS.
"When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless," the statement read. He added he remained committed to Syria.
Mr Al Assad did not elaborate on his future plans, instead detailing how he had left Syria on December 8. He said his statement was intended to set the record straight "amid a flood of misinformation" and had not come sooner due to "a total communication blackout for security reasons".
