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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad boarded a plane and left to an unknown destination, two senior army officers familiar with the incident told Reuters on Sunday.(reuters.com)

23 points22 points25 points submitted by neolib

In-the-clouds 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun 1 month ago

Which one? Or maybe he is going to visit Putin.

neolib[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun 1 month ago

Nothing is known for sure yet (it's breaking news), but most probably he fled, because islamist rebels are already entering Damascus, according to some reports:

Syrian insurgents say they have entered Damascus as residents of capital report sounds of gunfire

https://apnews.com/article/syria-assad-sweida-daraa-homs-hts-qatar-7f65823bbf0a7bd331109e8dff419430

UPD Ah, they updated Reuters article too now, the new title:

Assad has left Damascus, senior army officers say; Syria rebels say they are in capital

cunninglingus 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun 1 month ago

Hope the rebels bring stability and human rights improvements to the country and to the complicated foreign-controlled regions.

Zapped 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun 1 month ago

Which rebels are these? Some are probably worse than Assad.

neolib[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun 1 month ago

HTS is the main group, I posted a quote about them here (you can also read the linked explainer):

https://saidit.net/s/WarWatch/comments/fpgd/syrian_insurgents_advance_on_hama_city_after/178ew

cunninglingus 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun 1 month ago

I think it's a very important question. The short answer is that 95% of the rebels aren't officially Jihadists, but instead part of a general international effort to end the Assad dynasty and Ba'athist Syria. Why that has happened should be traced back to the Iraq war, IMO, and the reason Israel gave false information in order to start that war. It's still possible or even likely that mostrebels are worse than the latest Assad regime. Salafi Jihadist groups were only in small pockets of Syrian territory, and not in all cases (if any), aligned with the 'Syrian opposition' or the 'Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria' and their allies. All of the armed factions are ridiculously complex and I doubt the US news media will explain them properly. Here is a full list. Here is a map of their general locations on 1 December. Here is a template of all controlled areas, and notes on how to use it in order to see shifts in activity. What's especially disturbing about this war is that the many factions and the major countries involved will continue their meddling in Syria's governance, which will continue their roles in destabilizing the region.