Syria rebels breach Damascus, free prisoners—developing story News
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Syria rebels breach Damascus, free prisoners—developing story

Fighters with the Syrian opposition movement breached the capital Damascus early Sunday, reportedly freeing prisoners held in the country’s Sednaya Prison, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera, with Reuters reporting that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled the capital. The opposition is claiming that Assad’s government has fallen, just one week after rebels took the country’s second-largest city, Aleppo.

Flights have reportedly been cancelled at Damascus’s international airport, and unverified video on social media shows passengers running in the building.

The formerly al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a major part of the opposition, has been designated a terrorist group by the US since 2018. The UN considers HTS an alias for the Nusrah Front, which has been listed as a terrorist group since 2014.

This is a developing story.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Georgia became first US state to ban lynching

On December 20, 1893, Georgia became the first state in the Union to pass a law against lynching, making the act punishable by four years in prison. The statute was not particularly effective—read the text of the 1899 pamphlet Lynch Law in Georgia by anti-lynching activist Ida Wells-Barnett.