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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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 90 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.

[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Holy shit, this just gets crazier and crazier

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 71 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

To shreds you say?

[–] belastend@slrpnk.net 58 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

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

[–] guy@piefed.social 34 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..

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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.

[–] guy@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

My point exactly

[–] morrowind@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks 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

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago

Probably not, but at least for tonight we can celebrate

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 15 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.

[–] teslasaur@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago (10 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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[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago

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

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[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 35 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.

[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 33 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

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 23 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.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 35 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.

[–] humble_pete_digger@lemm.ee 14 points 2 weeks 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.

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[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks 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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[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 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

[–] Cpo@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] maplebar@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

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"...)

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Yah know, you didn't have to add that last caveat, most people already agreed with you

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[–] bokherif@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 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?

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 17 points 2 weeks 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
[–] carbonari_sandwich@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago

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

$$$ Assad must have run out of treasure

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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 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.

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Professor: Good news, everyone!

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