Syria. The Assad family’s Alawite regime falls. The capital, Damascus, is reached and taken by rebel forces. President Assad leaves the capital for Moscow. People celebrate in the streets all night. Statues and symbols of the regime are torn down. The fall of Bashar al-Assad was almost unthinkable just a week earlier, when the rebels began their surprising campaign against the regime from their base in Idlib. This is a turning point for Syria. Assad came to power in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez, who ruled the country for 29 years, much like his son, with an iron fist. Assad junior inherited a tightly controlled and repressive political structure, in which opposition was not tolerated. Initially, there were hopes that he might be different, more open, less brutal. But they were short-lived. Assad will forever be remembered as the man who violently repressed peaceful protests against his regime in 2011, which led to a civil war. More than half a million people were killed, and another six million became refugees. With the help of Russia and Iran, he crushed the rebels and survived. Russia deployed its formidable air power, while Iran sent military advisers to Syria and Hezbollah, the militia it supports in neighboring Lebanon, deployed its highly trained fighters. This time, it didn’t happen. His allies, preoccupied with their own affairs, essentially abandoned him. Without their help, his troops were unable\u2014and, in some places, apparently unwilling\u2014to stop the rebels, led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). First, they took Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, with almost no resistance. Then Hama, and, days later, the nerve center of Homs. With insurgents also advancing from the east and south, the offensive isolated Damascus. Within hours, fighters entered the capital, Assad’s seat of power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Syria. The Assad family’s Alawite regime falls. The capital, Damascus, is reached and taken by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-664807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vg-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n