JERUSALEM – Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who has used chemical weapons on his people multiple times, has fled Syria after rebels stormed the capital Damascus. According to Reuters.
Syrian TV reports said Assad, who trained as an ophthalmologist in Britain before succeeding his father, and his British-born wife Asma al-Assad fled with their three children. It was unclear where they were heading.
Syria has been embroiled in a bloody 13-year civil war as Islamic rebels seek to overthrow the Assad dynasty. The apparent collapse of the Assad family's more than 50-year rule over the Syrian Arab Republic will mark a monumental turning point in Middle Eastern power politics.
Syria's Islamic rebels catch Assad, Putin and the Iranian regime off guard, creating new Middle East headache
A photo taken on December 3 at the entrance to the Kwailis military airfield in eastern Aleppo province shows a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the national flag placed on a garbage dump after the area was taken over. There is. by rebel forces (Rami Al Said/AFP via Getty Images)
A coalition of mainly radical Islamist groups overthrew the Iranian-backed Assad regime. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, is an Islamist former al-Qaeda affiliate that is part of the rebel group, led by Bashar al-Assad, who took over as president in 2000 following the death of his father. He played a decisive role in the ouster of the president. , Hafez Assad.
HTS Islamist leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who is facing a $10 million bounty from the United States, is seeking to tone down the radical Islamism that has become a hallmark of the years-long war against Iraq in Syria and Iraq. I'm trying to present a version. American military. Mr. Al-Golani was captured by the U.S. military during the first decade of this century.
Syria experts told FOX News Digital that HTS is trying to impose a totalitarian Islamist regime on its people. Philip Smith, an expert on Iranian regime proxies and Syria at the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital: “HTS is an al-Qaeda offshoot and has ties to Turkey. Their ultimate goal is to create a Taliban-style A slightly modified version of society.”
On December 2, rebel forces in northwestern Syria seized a regime military vehicle along the route to Kweris airport in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP)
During the Arab Spring uprisings that engulfed Egypt and Tunisia, President Assad's decision to launch a violent crackdown on pro-democracy Syrian activists in 2011 led to a protracted civil war. President Assad's scorched-earth policy toward his own people has led to the deaths of more than 500,000 people. The United Nations recently announced it would stop tracking the rising death toll.
President Trump urges people to stay out of Syria's civil war, blames Obama for failure as Islamists close in on capital
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Egyptian and Jordanian officials have urged Assad to flee Syria and establish a government in exile. The Jordanian government denied the report.
In 2015, Assad's government was teetering when Russia intervened to save the dictatorship. Both the US-sanctioned Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah and its main sponsor Iran supported the Assad regime.
The rebels' swift capture of Syria's major cities, Aleppo, Hamas and Homs, and the rout of Assad's forces, shocked both President Putin and Iran. Ukraine's resistance to Russian territorial aggression weakened Moscow. Since Tehran's ally Hamas launched a surprise attack on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023, Israel has carried out numerous air strikes against Iranian military infrastructure.
A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (left) and his late father and predecessor Hafez hangs on the wall of a destroyed apartment in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jubeir in 2006. (Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images)
The UN Security Council passed Resolution 2254 in 2015, calling for a ceasefire, UN-led elections, and a new constitution. President Assad refused to implement the resolution.
After President Bashar al-Assad launched a shocking chemical weapons attack against Syrian civilians in 2013, killing more than 1,400 people, the Obama administration reneged on its promise to take military action against Assad.
The origins of Assad's forced removals date back to a group of schoolboys in 2011 in the dusty southwestern city of Daraa, the birthplace of the Syrian uprising. The boys used graffiti cans to write on a concrete wall: / I want to overthrow the government /! ”
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left), Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (center), and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei (right). ((Fox News/Getty Images))
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General Atef Najeeb, President Assad's cousin, oversaw an operation that included the torture of 15 arrested boys aged between 10 and 15. Syrian authorities ripped out the boy's fingernails, burned him and beat him.
