Islamabad, Dec 8: Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, is thought to have died in an aircraft accident. According to Reuters, his plane took a peculiar path before disappearing from radar.
A Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus airport around the time rebels grabbed control of the capital, the publication stated, citing data from the Flightradar website.
The aircraft made a sharp turn and flew oppositely for several minutes before vanishing from radar. Initially, it was headed for the coastal region of Syria, which is a bastion of Assad’s Alawite sect.
It was not immediately clear to Reuters who was on board. “There was a very high probability that Assad may have been killed in a plane crash as it was a mystery why the plane took a surprise U-turn and disappeared off the map,” two Syrian sources told the site.
The departure of Assad
On the morning of December 8, news broke that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had departed the country. The news that Syrian rebels had taken over the nation’s capital, Damascus, came at the same time as this information.
According to later accounts, an explosion was heard close to the location where Assad’s plane was last seen. Rumors circulated on social media that the aircraft carrying Bashar al-Assad might have been shot down.
