13-year-old Syrian civil war with more than 500,000 deaths reaches tentative end
Islamist rebels in Syria sweep through country
Syrian opposition forces continue to take more territory from the Assad regime as country's civil war continues at a pace. (Credit: Reuters)
JERUSALEM—The Western-trained eye doctor, Bashar Assad, who used chemical weapons multiple times on his population, has fled Syria after a re-kindled revolt against his brutal regime resulted in the speedy loss of major cities and territory that started in late November.
Assad and his British-born wife, Asma al-Assad, fled with their three children to…
After one of the bloodiest civil wars of this century, a 13-year-old conflict in the heart of the Islamic heartland that looked to overthrow the Assad dynasty has seemingly come to an end, at least for now.
The collapse of more than 50 years of Assad family rule over the Syrian Arabian Republic is a monumental turning point in Middle East power politics.
ISLAMIST REBELS IN SYRIA CATCH ASSAD, PUTIN, IRAN REGIMES OFF GUARD GIVING US NEW MIDEAST HEADACHE
TOPSHOT - A picture taken at the entrance of the Kweyris military airfield in the eastern part of Aleppo province on December 3, 2024 shows a portrait of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a national flag in the garbage dumpster following the take over of the area by rebel groups. A war monitor on December 1 said Ankara-backed groups seized control of the towns of Safireh and Khanasser southeast of Aleppo from government forces, and also took the Kweyris military airport. (Photo by RAMI AL SAYED/AFP via Getty Images)
A coalition of largely radical Islamist groups dislodged Assad’s Iran-backed regime. The U.S.-designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist former Al-Qaeda affiliate that is part of the rebel forces, played the decisive role in evicting Assad, who inherited his presidency in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez Assad.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the Islamist leader of HTS, who has a $10 million bounty on his head from the U.S, seeks to present a toned-down version of the radical Islamism that has defined his years of fighting in Syria and in Iraq against American troops. Al-Golani was detained by the U.S. military in the first decade of this century.
It’s over: Assad has fled Damascus, according to senior officers in the Syrian regime (Reuters). Syrian state television also reports that he is no longer present. Rebel forces are making their way to the communication buildings to announce the establishment of a new interim…
— נדב איל Nadav Eyal (@Nadav_Eyal) December 8, 2024
Syrian experts have told Fox News Digital that HTS seeks to impose a totalitarian Islamist regime on the population. Phillip Smyth, an expert on Iranian regime proxy groups and Syria, who is with the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital, "HTS is a group that is an outgrowth of Al-Qaeda and has connections to Turkey. Their endgame is to create a Talibanesque society with a few tweaks."
Rebels In Northwest Syria Seized Military Vehicles Belonging To The Regime Along The Route Toward Kweris Airport In The Eastern Countryside Of Aleppo On December 2, 2024. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP)
Assad’s decision in 2011 to launch a violent crackdown on pro-democracy Syrian activists during the Arab Spring revolts, which engulfed Egypt and Tunisia, resulted in a protracted civil war. Assad’s scorched-earth policy against the citizens of his country caused the killing of over 500,000 people. The U.N. recently announced that it has stopped counting the mounting death toll.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday Egyptian and Jordanian officials urged Assad to flee Syria and form a government-in-exile. Jordan’s government denied the report.
In 2015, Assad’s regime was teetering when Vladimir Putin’s Russia intervened to save the dictatorship. The U.S.-sanctioned Lebanese terrorist movement, Hezbollah, and its main sponsor, Iran, both threw their weight behind Assad’s regime.
The rebel forces who routed Assad’s forces—with the swift capture of the major Syrian cities of Aleppo, Hamas, and Homs—jolted both Putin and Iran. Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion of its territory has weakened Moscow. Israel has inflicted a number of aerial attacks on Iran’s military infrastructure since Tehran’s ally, Hamas, launched a surprise attack against the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.
Portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and his late father and predecessor, Hafez, hang on the wall of a destroyed apartment in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, 17 August 2006. (PATRICK BAZ/AFP via Getty Images)
The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2254 in 2015, which called for a cease-fire, UN-run elections and a new constitution. Assad rejected the resolution’s implementation.
After Assad launched a shocking mass chemical weapons strike on Syrian civilians in 2013, in which more than 1,400 people were killed, former President Obama’s administration reneged on its promise to take military action against Assad.
The origin of Assad’s forced departure can be traced back to a group of schoolboys in the southwestern dusty city of Daraa—the cradle of the Syrian revolt—in 2011. The young boys used cans of graffiti to write on a concrete wall:"The people / want / to topple the regime!"
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left), Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (center), Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right). ((Fox News/Getty Images))
Assad’s cousin, Gen. Atef Najeeb, oversaw an operation that involved reported torture of the arrested 15 boys between the ages of 10 and 15. Syrian officials ripped the boy’s fingernails out and burned and beat them.
Syrian Islamist forces ousted Assad’s regime on Friday in Daraa.
Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal, and email him at
