Excerpt
Syria’s armed opposition says they have captured the capital, Damascus, and that President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country.
“After 50 years of oppression under Baathist rule and 13 years of criminality, tyranny and displacement … we declare today, December 8, 2024, the end of that dark era.”
Syrian opposition says end of al-Assad’s gov’t marks new chapter in history.
Unconfirmed social media reports also suggest that Assad’s plane crashed.
The sudden collapse of the Assad regime, dating back over half a century to the rule of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, has rocked the Middle East and could mean the Iranian regime, a Syrian ally, is in danger.
Assad was one of the most notorious tyrants in the world, one who used chemical weapons against his own people. His regime nearly fell in the civil war that erupted during the Arab Spring in 2011, but he was shored up by Russian and Iranian forces.
President Vladimir Putin used Syria to restore Russia’s presence in the Middle East for the first time since the Cold War, while Iran used Syria as a conduit to Hezbollah in Lebanon, sending weapons and advisers.
Assad had bombed rebel-held cities with no regard for civilian life, and torturing suspected rebels and dissidents. President Barack Obama drew a “red line” in 2012 when he said the U.S. would intervene militarily if Assad used chemical weapons, but then failed to act.
President Donald Trump launched airstrikes against the regime in 2017 after a chemical weapons attack, firing nearly 60 cruise missiles at Syrian air bases, which had the intended effect.
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