Russian embassy in Syria says its staff are safe

8/12/2024 17:07

The Russian embassy in Syria has said that its staff are "fine" following the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the capture of Damascus by rebel groups, Russia's state TASS news agency reported on Sunday.



Syrian rebels announced on state television on Sunday that they had ousted Assad, eliminating a 50-year family dynasty in a lightning offensive that raises the spectre of a new wave of instability in a Middle East gripped by war.



"We are fine," a Russian embassy staff member told TASS, without providing details on the diplomats' whereabouts.



On Friday, the embassy had urged Russian nationals to leave the country.



Russia, a staunch Assad ally, intervened decisively in 2015 to prop him up during Syria's civil war, which began in 2011.



Russian war bloggers have raised fears about the fate of two strategically-important Russian military facilities in Syria.