BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government appeared to have fallen early Sunday in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family after a lightning rebel offensive.
The head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said President Bashar Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus after a remarkably swift advance across the country.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government.
Assad was a fucker who committed crimes against humanity and deserved to die. Unfortunately I don’t have high hopes for whatever group of islamist fascists ends up arresting control.
(Time to find out if this is one of those subs that removes any comment even slightly critical of islam as “islamophobia”…)
Yah know, you didn’t have to add that last caveat, most people already agreed with you
What do you mean? Why do you think I give a damn whether “most people” agree with what I’m saying or not?
(time to find out blah blah blah who gives a fuck) shows you do give a damn about whether “most people” agree with what you are saying or not.
Not that Assad isn’t a massive cunt, but I do wonder what might happen next.
For reference here is a news article about a certain group taking Afghanistan in 1996, and the tone about today’s news seems oddly familiar.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/27/newsid_2539000/2539973.stm
The PM may call for free elections all he wants, but a group that has spent the last decade shedding blood for this moment my not see things quite the same way.
Still, the Syrian government and Hezbollah were in cahoots, so I can think of at least one Syrian neighbour that will be celebrating this. It’s one less route for weapons to end up in the West Bank.
Not that Assad isn’t a massive cunt, but I do wonder what might happen next.
Given the track record of violent revolutions throughout history, nothing good. Still, seeing how low the “better than Assad” bar is it might be a slight improvement.
Practical result - Israel is already hard at work annexing more Syrian territory: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-moves-capture-syrian-held-golan-heights-following-assad-overthrow ofc Netaniahu swears that it’s “temporary”, I guarantee you - this is a permanent.
Another route would be an independent source of water and power and a trade route and free association and free movement about their own country. But sure, choose violence to end violence, because that works.
It’s one less route for weapons to end up in the West Bank.
Only true if the revolution was Israeli sponsored.
Can someone ELI5 what happened? I knew about the civil war but it had been effectively at a stalemate for a couple of years. How did the rebels suddenly surge like they did?
Iran and Russia used to be helping them, but Iran is in a shadow war with Israel and Russia is in a war with Ukraine + western allies. Their funding and personnel dried up.
Plus, the Syrian rebels banded together. Without Russian air support and airstrikes around the capital, and without iranian arms, their regime collapsed and ran to Russia like a bitch.
Will Syria be better now? It’s anyone’s guess. I could see Russia and China potentially making moves on them during the rebuild process, but who knows for sure. The US will probably pull out soon once the next government is formed in January. It could be up to the Syrian rebels and Syrian people, but their country infrastructure is pretty blown apart, so they will need outside capital and expertise to rebuild.
From what I know, this is the combination of three things
- Opposition rebel groups decided not to fight each other
- Assad had it’s russian support cut out
- Blitz offensive lead by the opposition rebel groups, some of which had Turkish support lead to mayhem in Assad ranks
My best wishes to a free Rojava and may all Syrians get to experience a life of peace and freedom
The West will soon realise they backed the wrong horse.
Turkey is ruled by a two-face jackass who tries to play both sides. He’s mainly interested in slaughtering the Kurds and carving out a piece of Syria for himself. So yeah, wrong horse for the people of Syria who will have to endure an ultraconservative theocracy, but the west will celebrate this because this benefits israel. Syria had been a thorn in israel’s side.
Oh sorry, I just assumed you meant that the west backed these rebels, which they don’t. You should have been clearer if that wasn’t the case.
