MANSION RAID
Watch Syrian rebels storm Assad’s palace and rifle through dictator’s bedroom drawers after seizing second city Aleppo
Footage shows the AK-47 wielding troops walk around the fancy home
INCREDIBLE footage shows Syrian rebels storming Bashar al-Assad's palace and rifle through his bedroom drawers.
The humiliating footage for the ruthless dictator comes as Islamist troops seized the country's second city of Aleppo last week.
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After his home was seized, Assad promised to fight back, declaring "terror only understands the language of power, and we will break it with it."
Footage shows insurgents entering what appears to be Assad's palace and explore the stately home.
The fighters, wearing balaclavas and holding AK-47s, walk through fancy bedrooms and an en-suite picking up items on the dresser and checking inside cupboards.
They do not trash the home and respectfully place items back where they found them.
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Their surprise offensive launched only days before caught Assad off guard and has since captured hundreds of miles of land and dozens of towns.
The attack is posing a direct threat to Assad's rule as the Syrian Salvation Government's (HTS) troops make President look weak.
On Saturday, video showed crowds around the Bassel al-Assad statue in Aleppo's Basel Square before tearing down the former heir to Syria's presidency from his horse.
The moment mirrors the symbolic toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
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Rampaging rebels have also torn down a Russian flag, stamped on it, and burned the white, blue and red tricolour, declaring it was “Allah’s will”.
The main thrust of the surprise offensive has now shifted south, with the Islamist-led rebels battling Assad's troops on Tuesday as they advanced towards the city of Hama in central Syria, a war monitor said.
Watch as Syrian Islamist rebels tear down Assad statue in ‘Saddam moment’
HTS and its allies fought some of the "most violent" clashes with troops in the area since launching the lightning offensive last week, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: "Clashes have erupted in the northern Hama countryside, where rebel factions managed to seize several cities and towns in the last few hours.
"Syrian and Russian air forces carried out dozens of strikes on the area."
Hama is a strategic city linking Aleppo to the capital Damascus and will be a top priority for Assad to hold.
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But an AFP journalist in the northern Hama countryside saw dozens of Syrian army tanks and military vehicles abandoned by the side of the road.
The city was a bastion of opposition to the Assad government early on in the civil war and the site of frequent mass protests.
A rebel takeover of Hama would "pose a threat to the regime's popular base", Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Russia first intervened directly in Syria's war in 2015 with strikes on rebel-held area and has pledged continued support with the latest fighting.
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State news agency SANA also reported air strikes on Hama province and rebel bastion Idlib in the northwest.
"We want to advance on Hama after combing" towns that have been captured, a rebel fighter who identified himself as Abu al-Huda al-Sourani told AFP.
The province's western countryside is home to the Alawite community from which Assad hails.
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Syria has been at war since Assad cracked down on democracy protests in 2011.
Syria's military - backed by Russian air attacks - are expected to form a "defensive line" to block off any further push at some point.
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