As a possible U.S. missile strike against the Syrian regime looms, it is said that a plan to evacuate President Bashar Assad and 45 members of his family from Damascus was prepared by Iranian and Syrian intelligence services, according to Yeni Şafak sources.
According to the plan that was approved during a meeting held on April 8, also attended by Assad, the embattled Syrian president and his family would first be brought to Beirut, then they’d be transported to the Iranian capital under Russian protection, where they will stay pending the outcome of the strike.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned of imminent military action in Syria, declaring that missiles "will be coming" after a poison gas attack of the Assad regime killed dozens in Douma.
According to local sources, Assad’s Qassr al-Shaab, or the People’s Palace, in Damascus houses a 140-meter-deep underground safe house.
According to a former Syrian intelligence chief, Assad has visited Russia’s Hmeimim Military Base in Latakia twice within the past six days alone.
According to Lebanon-based Arabic-language Sawt Lubnan, Assad, sensing a possible strike, fled Damascus during meetings held at the UN in the aftermath of the gas attack in Douma.
Built during the Hafez Assad era, Assad’s palace on Mount Qassiyoun was built by a Lebanese company that belongs to Lebanon’s assassinated Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The palace’s underground section has over 50 hidden underground chambers that were turned into torture centers since the war erupted in 2011.
Underground sections also house documents and confidential information that was smuggled out of regions that Assad lost control over during the uprising of the Arab Spring.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian Army has begun to evacuate airports and military bases following the escalating tension in the region in anticipation of any possible U.S. strike.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
