Monday Briefing: Al-Assad’s Final Days in Power

Briefing|Monday Briefing: Al-Assad’s Final Days in Power

Inside the final days of the Assad regime

As rebels advanced toward the Syrian capital of Damascus in early December, the staff in the hilltop Presidential Palace prepared for a speech they hoped would lead to a peaceful end to the 13-year civil war. Aides to President Bashar al-Assad brainstormed messaging ideas. A film crew set up cameras and lights nearby. Syria’s state-run television station was ready to broadcast an address by al-Assad announcing a plan to share power with members of the political opposition.

They had all been deceived. After dusk, the president slipped out of the capital, flying covertly to Moscow, according to several government and security officials. Al-Assad left his country so secretively that some of his aides remained in the palace hours after he had left, waiting for a speech that never came. After midnight, word came that the president was gone, and they fled in a panic, leaving the palace gates wide open for the rebels who would storm in a few hours later.

This account of al-Assad’s fall, much of which has not been previously reported, is based on interviews with Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish officials; Damascus-based diplomats; associates of al-Assad; and rebels who participated in his ouster. Read more here.

German authorities struggle to understand motives behind Christmas market attack

Officials in Germany were trying yesterday to piece together the complicated profile of the man suspected of killing five people by driving an S.U.V. into a crowd at a Christmas market two days earlier. The victims in the assault, which took place in the eastern city of Magdeburg, were a 9-year-old boy and four women aged 45 to 75, the police said. More than 200 others were wounded.