CAIRO: A lightning rebel offensive early this month caught Syria’s ruling clan off guard.
President Bashar Assad fled to Russia on December 8, leaving behind many of his collaborators, some of whom sought refuge in neighboring countries.
According to two sources, the ousted president, who fled to Moscow via the Russian military airfield in Hmeimim on Syria’s coast, was accompanied by only a handful of confidants.
Among them were his closet ally, the secretary-general of presidential affairs Mansour Azzam, as well as his economic adviser Yassar Ibrahim, who oversees the financial empire of Assad and his wife, Asma.
“He left with his secretary and his treasurer,” an insider who requested anonymity said, mockingly.
Bashar’s brother, Maher Assad, commander of the elite Fourth Division tasked with defending Damascus, did not know about his sibling’s plans.
Leaving his men stranded, Maher took a separate route, fleeing by helicopter to Iraq before traveling to Russia, according to a Syrian military source.
An Iraqi security source told AFP that Maher arrived in Iraq by plane on December 7 and stayed there for five days.
Maher’s wife, Manal Al-Jadaan and his son briefly entered Lebanon before departing through Beirut airport, said Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, without disclosing their final destination.
Another Assad government heavyweight, Ali Mamlouk, the former chief of Syria’s security apparatus, fled to Russia via Iraq, said a Syrian military source.
His son passed through Lebanon before leaving for another destination, according to a Lebanese security source.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry denied on Monday the presence of either Maher Assad or Mamlouk in Iraq.
Both are wanted men.
Maher — and Bashar Assad — are wanted by France for alleged complicity in war crimes over chemical attacks in Syria in August 2013.
The French courts have already sentenced Mamlouk and Jamil Hassan, former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, in absentia to life imprisonment for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On Friday, the Lebanese authorities received an Interpol alert relaying a US request to arrest Hassan and hand him over to the US authorities, should he enter the country.
The United States accuses Hassan of “war crimes,” including overseeing barrel bomb attacks on Syrian people that killed thousands of civilians.
A Lebanese judicial source told AFP that they had no confirmation of Hassan’s presence in Lebanon, but assured that he would be detained if found.
Other prominent figures also made hasty escapes.
Bouthaina Shaaban, former translator for Hafez Assad — Bashar’s father who founded the brutal system of government his son inherited — fled to Lebanon on the night of December 7-8.
Shaaban, Bashar Assad’s long-time political adviser, then traveled to Abu Dhabi, according to a friend in Beirut.
Kifah Mujahid, head of the Baath Brigades — the military wing of Syria’s former ruling party — escaped to Lebanon by boat, a party source told AFP.
Other officials took refuge in their hometowns in Alawite regions, some of them told AFP. Assad hailed from Syria’s Alawite minority.
Not all escape attempts were successful.
Ihab Makhlouf, Bashar Assad’s cousin and a prominent businessman, was killed on December 7 while trying to flee Damascus.
His twin brother, Iyad, was injured in the same incident, said a military official from the former government.
Their elder sibling, Rami Makhlouf, once considered Syria’s richest man and a symbol of the regime’s corruption, managed to survive.
Several other figures close to Assad’s government crossed into Lebanon, according to a security source and a source in the business world. These included Ghassan Belal, head of Maher’s office, and businessmen Mohammed Hamsho, Khalid Qaddur, Samer Debs and Samir Hassan.
A former Lebanese minister with close ties to Syria said that several senior Syrian military officers were granted safe passage by the Russians to the Hmeimim air base.
They were rewarded for instructing their troops not to resist the rebel offensive in order to avoid further bloodshed, he said.

CAIRO: Hamas and two other Palestinian militant groups said on Saturday that a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel is “closer than ever,” provided Israel does not impose new conditions.
Last week, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States were held in Doha, rekindling hope of an agreement.
“The possibility of reaching an agreement (for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal) is closer than ever, provided the enemy stops imposing new conditions,” Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a rare joint statement issued after talks in Cairo on Friday.
A Hamas leader told AFP on Saturday that talks had made “significant and important progress” in recent days.
“Most points related to the ceasefire and prisoner exchange issues have been agreed upon,” he said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
“Some unresolved points remain, but they do not hinder the process. The agreement could be finalized before the end of this year, provided it is not disrupted by (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s new conditions.”
He said that if an agreement is reached it will be implemented in phases, ending with “a serious prisoner exchange deal, a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal (of Israeli forces) from Gaza.”
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “hopeful” for a deal, but avoided making any predictions as to when it would actually materialize.
“I don’t want to hazard a guess as to what the probability is,” he said at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“It should happen. It needs to happen. We need to get people home,” he said, referring to the release of hostages under a ceasefire deal.
Palestinian militants led by Hamas abducted 251 hostages during their attack on Israel on October 7 last year. Of those, 96 are still held in Gaza, including 36 the Israeli military says are dead.
Efforts to strike a truce and hostage release deal have repeatedly failed over key stumbling blocks.
Despite numerous rounds of indirect talks, Israel and Hamas have agreed just one truce, which lasted for a week at the end of 2023.
Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since then, with the primary point of contention being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.
Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he does not want to withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land cleared and controlled by Israel along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Another unresolved issue is the governance of post-war Gaza.
It remains a highly contentious issue, including within the Palestinian leadership.
Israel has said repeatedly that it will not allow Hamas to run the territory ever again.