Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad goes into exile as Islamist rebels conquer country
JERUSALEM – Bashar Assad, a Western-trained ophthalmologist who has repeatedly used chemical weapons against his own people, has been engulfed in major cities since late November as a renewed rebellion against his brutal regime and rapid loss of territory, he has fled Syria.
Assad and his British-born wife Asma Assad fled with their three children to…
After one of the bloodiest civil wars this century, the 13-year conflict in the Islamic heartland to overthrow the Assad dynasty appears to be over, at least for now.
The collapse of the Assad family’s more than 50-year rule over the Syrian Arab Republic is a major turning point in power politics in the Middle East.
Syria’s Islamist rebels were caught off guard by Assad, Putin and the Iranian regime, creating new headaches for us in the Middle East
TOPSHOT – Photo taken on December 3, 2024 at the entrance to Qures military airport in eastern Aleppo province shows a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the flag of rebel groups in a trash can after they took over the area. On December 1, Ankara-backed groups seized control of the towns of Safireh and Khanasser southeast of Aleppo from government forces and captured Qures, a war observer said. (Kweyris) Military Airfield. (Photo by Rami Al Said/AFP via Getty Images)
A coalition of mostly radical Islamist groups overthrew the Iran-backed Assad regime. The U.S.-designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Islamist al-Qaeda affiliate affiliated with the rebels, played a decisive role in ousting Assad. , Hafez al-Assad.
HTS’ Islamist leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, seeks to present a moderate version of the radical Islamism that has defined him for years Fighting in Syria and Iraq. Golani was detained by U.S. forces in the 1990s.
Syria experts told Fox News Digital that HTS is trying to impose a totalitarian Islamic regime on the population. Phillip Smyth, an expert on Iranian regime proxies and Syria at the Atlantic Council, told Fox Digital News, “HTS is an al-Qaeda creation with ties to Turkey. Their ultimate goal is to create a Taliban-style society. Made some adjustments.
On December 2, 2024, rebel forces in northwest Syria seized military vehicles belonging to the regime on the route to Qures Airport in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP)
In 2011, as Arab Spring rebellions swept Egypt and Tunisia, Assad decided to launch a violent crackdown on Syrian pro-democracy activists, leading to a protracted civil war. Assad’s scorched-earth policy against his own citizens resulted in the killing of more than half a million people. The United Nations recently announced it had stopped counting the rising death toll.
Trump urges us not to get involved in Syrian civil war, blames Obama for failing as Islamists close in on capital
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Egyptian and Jordanian officials have urged Assad to flee Syria and form a government-in-exile. The Jordanian government denied the report.
Assad’s regime was crumbling in 2015 when Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, stepped in to rescue the dictatorship. The U.S.-sanctioned Lebanese terror movement Hezbollah and its main sponsor Iran both strongly support the Assad regime.
The rebels defeated Assad’s forces and quickly captured the main Syrian cities of Aleppo, Hamas and Homs, shocking Putin and Iran. Ukraine’s resistance to Russian incursions into its territory has weakened Moscow. Israel has launched multiple airstrikes against Iran’s military infrastructure since Tehran’s ally Hamas launched a raid on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.
Portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (left) and his late father and predecessor Hafez hang on the wall of a destroyed apartment in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jubail on August 17, 2006 . (Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2015, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2254, calling for a ceasefire, UN-sponsored elections and a new constitution. Assad refused to implement the resolution.
After Assad launched a shocking large-scale chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians in 2013, killing more than 1,400 people, former President Obama’s administration reneged on its commitment to take military action against Assad.
The roots of Assad’s forced departure can be traced back to 2011, when a group of young boys in the dusty southwestern city of Daraa, the cradle of Syria’s rebellion, wrote in cans of graffiti on a cement wall: “The people/want/to overthrow the regime! “
Russian President Putin (left), Syrian President Bashar Assad (center), and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right). ((Fox News/Getty Images))
Click here to get the Fox News app
Assad’s cousin, General Atef Najeeb, oversaw an operation that reportedly tortured 15 boys aged between 10 and 15 who were captured. took off the boys’ fingernails, burned them and beat them.
Syrian Islamist forces overthrew Assad’s regime in Daraa on Friday.
