this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Unconfirmed reports that Assad's plane has been shot down:

https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/syrian-president-bashar-al-assads-plane-shot-down-say-unconfirmed-reports

This is develping, so take it with a grain of salt.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Holy shit, this just gets crazier and crazier

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

Could be faking his own death so he isn't tracked down and killed.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

To shreds you say?

[–] [email protected] 60 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Gotta say, its good Assad's gone, but HTS does not sound much better.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The statements their leader have made seems promising. Cooperation with the UN, peaceful overhanding of power etc. But they stem from Al-Qaeda so let's hope this doesn't age like milk..

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

The statements their leader have made seems promising.

He is making the right noises, but then again so did the Taliban when they took control of Afghanistan.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

My point exactly

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

The taliban had no allies, resources or much established that was at stake, thus no real incentive to follow through. They were just testing the waters to see if the world actually cared that much about those things or it was just a lot of noise. Turns out they were right, no country reciprocated on their statements, and so they just went back to their old ways.

HTS does actually have incentive to follow through here I think

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

Probably not, but at least for tonight we can celebrate

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, they're saying all the right things right now but their past associations with al Qaeda and ISIS doesn't bode well.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

Are they really saying the correct things?

I've seen plenty of interviews where where they say that "God is great" on repeat. Thats not what you want to hear from your potential governing body.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

The enemy of my enemy is not as bad an enemy as the other enemy.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Not sure if I would have preferred al-Assad having to live out the rest of his life in exile and constantly look over his own shoulder... Or seeing him imprisoned in Syria and/or publicly hanged for his crimes against humanity. But I guess with him having fled via plane, we'll all have to accept the former.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

...15ft/s drop at the mysterious end of his flight path in the mountains: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/yk-ata#3844aec1

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

That's a rumor that's going around. The flight path makes no sense for a VIP (for example, flying over the city center of occupied Homs), and while it was pretty clearly a crash of a military plane, that doesn't at all imply it was al-Assad's. We don't know the destination, just that he boarded a plane, but I'm guessing we'll see him turn up soon enough.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Might've been trying to make it to the Russian Airbase near Latakia and may not have had clearance to fly over Lebanon. Might've been trying for Iraq originally, but got denied.

But yeah, whether or not that plane was carrying Assad is just speculation.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I mean Golan Heights is mentioned in the news all the time, and I've never seen any of them talk about it as anything other than Israeli territory, despite it being Syria.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My best wishes to a free Rojava and may all Syrians get to experience a life of peace and freedom

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

I do hope so but HTS has some concerning links to IS.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago

2024 be like: I'm not done yet!!!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

From what I know, this is the combination of three things

  1. Opposition rebel groups decided not to fight each other
  2. Assad had it's russian support cut out
  3. Blitz offensive lead by the opposition rebel groups, some of which had Turkish support lead to mayhem in Assad ranks
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

He relied primarily on Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah support.

[–] MyNameIsIgglePiggle 4 points 2 weeks ago

$$$ Assad must have run out of treasure

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

That was damn fast, I didn't think they'd hit Damascus this week.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Too soon to know much for sure, but this could be fucking wild if it's really at face value.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Professor: Good news, everyone!

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