al-Assad’s death a Russian sham

The plane took off from Damascus as the rebels marched in.

Then it made a sharp turn and disappeared from the radar.

Now Ukraine’s intelligence service states that it was a Russian sham maneuver in connection with the dictator Bashar al-Assad being flown out of Syria.

The lightning offensive by the Syrian opposition forces took both the world and the regime by surprise.

On the night of Sunday, the rebels captured Damascus and within a few hours information came from several quarters that Bashar al-Assad had fled.

At the same time, a Russian-designed Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft took off from Damascus International Airport. It steered towards the coast, but made a u-turn and lost a lot of height in a short time. After exactly 40 minutes in the air – at 02:39, Swedish time – the plane disappeared from the radar. Last listing on Flightradar24 shows that it was 495 meters high and was located west of Homs.

The route and sudden disappearance was picked up by a news account linked to the Syrian rebels and sparked speculation on social media.

Later in the morning, the Reuters news agency stated that it was “highly likely” that al-Assad had died in a plane crash. The information was passed on by several other media, including this newspaper, but was later retracted by Reuters.

At 6 p.m., Russian state media reported that al-Assad and members of his family were in Moscow, where they had been granted asylum.

Basically at the same time, Ukraine’s military intelligence stated that the flight path and disappearance from the radar was a Russian sham maneuver.

“Assad’s flight from Damascus was accompanied by the news that an Il-76T aircraft carrying the Syrian dictator had lost its radar signal and was said to have been shot down or crashed. According to available data, the aggressor state Russia used this disinformation to hide its operation to rescue the Syrian leader and a limited number of people close to him,” wrote the intelligence service.

According to the report, the pilot may have deliberately turned off the aircraft’s transponder.

“The loss of the Assad plane’s radar signal is probably related to the crew acting on Russian instructions and flying under their control.”

CNN statesciting sources close to the rebels, that al-Assad left Damascus under Russian protection and made his way to Latakia in northwestern Syria where Russia has an air base.

Earlier in the day – before Russia had assumed al-Assad was in Moscow – tweeted the normally well-informed Israeli reporter Barak Ravid similar data.

“An Israeli source said: Assad left Damascus around midnight and was flown to a Russian base in Syria with the intention of continuing from there to Moscow,” he wrote.

Ravid also stated that he received information from an American source that the US was tracking the dictator’s movements.

BBC Russian edition stated at 7pm on Sunday that a Russian plane “a few hours earlier” took off from Latakia and may have brought al-Assad to Moscow. According to the BBC, the plane had its transponder turned off for much of the flight.