Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Flees as Damascus Falls to the Rebels

Timing is everything in life, love, and war. The Islamist rebels who have been fighting the regime of Bashar Assad since 2012 recognized their moment had arrived when Israel pulverized one of Assad’s major military backers, Hezbollah. 

Advertisement

Soon after Israel had decapitated Hezbollah’s leadership, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the largest and best organized of the Islamist militias in Syria, went on the offensive. With Hezbollah fatally weakened and Syria’s other military ally, Russia, occupied with the war in Ukraine, HTS took advantage of the sorry state of the Syrian regular army and began to roll.

They took Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, after the Syrian army reportedly fled after hardly firing a shot. There were also reports of Syrian troops throwing down their weapons and

Continue reading