AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Dramatic news today in Syria, where the capital, Damascus, has fallen to opposition forces. Syrian government forces retreated and laid down weapons less than two weeks after a coalition of opposition fighters emerged to retake city after city. President Bashar al-Assad was reported to have fled the country early this morning, apparently ending half a century of his family's iron rule. NPR's Jane Arraf joins us from the Kurdistan region of Iraq bordering Syria with the latest. Jane, can you tell us about the importance of the events today?
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Sure. You know, few Syrians would have even dared to dream 13 years ago - when al-Assad put down the uprising that sparked into a civil war - that this moment would actually happen. This country, Syria, was once the most prosperous in the Middle East, and it's been shattered. Almost 6 million Syrians have become refugees. The economy collapsed. The prisons were full. And, Ayesha, the fact that this happened so quickly and with so little bloodshed in a country with such a volatile past is really still hard for a lot of people to believe.
RASCOE: Are we sure that Assad has gone? Do we know where he's gone?
ARRAF: Yeah, that is the question. Russian officials confirmed that he left, so that seems pretty solid. A monitoring organization said he left by air early this morning. A Syrian prime minister stayed behind, Mohammad al-Jalali. And he said he was extending a hand to opposition groups and would help with government transition. So over the decades, the al-Assad family - including the president and his wife, Asma, who was once on the cover of Vogue - have accumulated vast amounts of wealth. So there are multiple places (ph) they could go but probably only a few where they would be welcomed. And we just don't know where that is at the moment.
Meanwhile, in Damascus, the Syrian state TV opposition on - the opposition commander announced victory on Syria's state TV. Let's listen to a bit of that 'cause it's quite dramatic.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED COMMANDER: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: So this is a commander surrounded by a group of fighters wearing black hoodies and puffy jackets, and he's giving a list of decrees. He says, the regime of what he calls the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has fallen. And prisoners - all of them unjustly accused, he says - have been released. He pledges that they will safeguard state institutions. And then this red banner fills the screen, declaring the victory of the great Syrian revolution. It says, this is a historic day in Syria's modern history. And that is indeed how so many Syrians feel.
RASCOE: So, as you mentioned, there are huge numbers of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries around the world. In fact, Syria is considered one of the world's biggest refugee crises. What has been the response at the borders today?
ARRAF: Well, our producer Jawad Rizkallah went to the border of Lebanon with Syria. And if - had you gone there, like, any time up until a couple of weeks ago, you would have just seen signs of continued misery of Syrians stranded outside their country, afraid to go back and not completely welcome in other countries. But today was different. There were lines of vehicles waiting to go back. Jawad spoke with one young woman, a law student named Maysam.
MAYSAM: (Non-English language spoken).
JAWAD RIZKALLAH, BYLINE: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYSAM: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: She said they were so happy, they couldn't sleep. She woke her parents up to tell them the news.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Jane Arraf. Thank you so much for joining us.
ARRAF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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