December 9, 2024 1:10 PM

Rebels capture Damascus, topple Assad regime after 54 years; President flees to Russia

On 27 November, the Syrian rebels launched a lighting offensive on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. By the 29th, they had captured the city of Aleppo. And Hama a week later. On 8 December, Assad fled and Damascus fell, ending the 54-year rule of Assad and his late father Hafez al-Assad. The Islamist rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had never had it so good since a civil war erupted in Syria in the year 2011. Until the last week of November, the war in Syria had been mostly dormant fo...