Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is in Russia, according to a Kremlin source.
Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying:
“Syrian President Assad has arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them (him and his family) asylum on humanitarian grounds.”
Russia has requested a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday to discuss the UN peacekeeping mission in the Golan Heights, diplomats said.
Assad left Syria on Sunday morning after rebels seized power.
Rebel forces entered the capital overnight, just over a week after launching an offensive that has swept through Syria’s largest cities.
The government has survived more than a decade of civil war and economic crisis, but its forces have buckled under pressure from the rapid advance of various rebel groups coming from the north, south and east.
