DAMASCUS: Organisations that had previously been close to the government of Bashar Assad attempted to distance themselves after its rapid fall.

Syria's al-Watan newspaper, historically pro-government, wrote: “We are facing a new page for Syria. We thank God for not shedding more blood. We believe and trust that Syria will be for all Syrians.”

It added that media workers should not be blamed for publishing government statements in the past.

“We only carried out the instructions and published the news they sent us,” it said. “It quickly became clear now that it was false.”

A statement from the Alawite sect - to which Assad belongs and which has formed the core of his base - called on the youth to be “calm, rational and prudent and not to be dragged into what tears apart the unity of our country.”

“We were and still are advocates of peace and advocates of unity,” it said. It called for “the language of reason and dialogue to prevail over all parties in the service of Syria and its great people.”