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The tunnels found by the fighters are ready for use, and the complex under the palace of brother Assad is wide enough for trucks to pass through.
After the rebels in Syria entered Damascus, videos from the palaces of Bashar Assad and his relatives began to appear on social networks. It turned out that they were connected by a whole network of tunnels. About this write Daily Mail.
A video purporting to show the mansion of Major General Maher al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad's brother, shows white stairs carved into the floor going underground. From there, two more stairs lead even deeper.
Next, the video shows a large network of tunnels with high ceilings.
Maher Assad — the ousted president's brother, known for his brutality — holds the equivalent of a major general and commanded the Syrian army's elite Fourth Division.
The video's caption reads: "A huge complex of tunnels under Maher Assad's mansion, wide enough for trucks to pass through."
Another insurgent claimed that the tunnels were "ready for use, they have ventilation, living rooms, bedrooms, locks and metal doors".
The video also shows large metal doors opening with a button and huge tunnels illuminated by lamps under the ceiling.
Syrian rebels captured the country's capital Damascus without resistance on Sunday, December 8, forcing President Bashar al-Assad to flee after 13 years of civil war and six decades of authoritarian rule by his family.
Russian state media confirmed that the ousted leader and his family fled the country and took refuge in Moscow. However, the whereabouts of his brother Maher are unknown.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Syrians gathered at the Lebanese and Turkish borders in the hope of returning to their country.
An estimated seven million Syrians have fled the Assad regime since the civil war began in 2011 — most of them to refugee camps in neighboring countries such as Turkey and Jordan.
Since then, more than a million people have settled in Europe, most of them in Germany. Between 2015 and 2021, 20 Syrian migrants arrived in the UK under the government's resettlement programme.
"The barbarian state has fallen," declared French President Emmanuel Macron.
A Kremlin source has already said that Syrian opposition leaders have allegedly agreed to guarantee the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria. The Russians have an air base in Latakia and a port in Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea. The facility is Russia's only repair and resupply center in the Mediterranean, and Moscow has used Syria as a transit point to ferry its military contractors to and from Africa.
According to Western military analysts, the loss of Tartus will be a serious blow to Russia's ability to project its influence in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa.
It will be recalled that the rebels in Syria managed to free the prisoners from the so-called "Red Prison" in Damascus. Jailers electrocuted her before escaping, so they had to break the wall to free women, men and even children. According to Al Jazeera, between 2011 and 5000 prisoners have been hanged since 13 at the military prison, which has been called an "industrial torture chamber."
