[🇸🇾] Rebels Oust Assad

[Lulldapull]

They are morons sadly, we all have our shares.

I can't take it anymore. We're fukked because of jahils in all our countries.

 

[Mainerik]

I can't take it anymore. We're fukked because of jahils in all our countries.

It's a joke at this point. How can we ask others for help when we can't even help ourselves?

 

[Saif]

Turkey for providing military support to new Syria govt

Turkish defence minister Yasar Guler said on Sunday that his country was ready to provide military support to Syria’s new Islamist-led government set up by rebels who overthrew Bashar al-Assad if it requested it.

www.newagebd.net

Turkey for providing military support to new Syria govt
Agence France-Presse . Istanbul 15 December, 2024, 19:15

A rebel fighter stands guard as Syrian students rally near the campus of the Damascus University in the Syrian capital on December 15, 2024. | AFP photo

Turkish defence minister Yasar Guler said on Sunday that his country was ready to provide military support to Syria’s new government set up by rebels who overthrew Bashar al-Assad if it requested it.

He said the new leadership should be given ‘a chance’ and that Turkey was ‘ready to provide the necessary support’ if needed, in remarks reported by state news agency Anadolu and other Turkish media outlets.

‘It is necessary to see what the new administration will do. We think it is necessary to give them a chance,’ Guler said of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel alliance, which is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch and designated a ‘terrorist’ organisation by many Western governments.

HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric and its transitional government has insisted the rights of all Syrians would be protected along with the rule of law.

‘We have military training and cooperation agreements with many countries. We are ready to provide the necessary support if the new administration requests it,’ the Turkish defence minister said, without specifying what might be provided.

The new administration, Guler said, had pledged to ‘respect all government institutions, the UN and other international organisations’ and promised to report any evidence of chemical weapons to the OPCW watchdog.

Turkey’s top priority in Syria was to rid the country of Kurdish separatist fighters -- a goal which was supported by the new government, Guler said.

‘In this new period, the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation will be eliminated in Syria, sooner or later. Both we and the new administration in Syria want this,’ he said.

‘We have no problems with our Kurdish brothers living in Iraq and Syria. Our problem is only and exclusively with terrorists.’

The YPG (Syrian Kurdish People’s Defence Units) makes up the bulk of the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), a key US ally that defeated the Islamic State group’s self-declared caliphate in Syria in 2019.

Ankara views the YPG as an extension of its domestic foe, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), which has led a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

By extension, it sees the SDF as a terror outfit, setting it sharply at odds with Washington, which has called the group ‘crucial’ for preventing a resurgence of IS group jihadists in Syria.

‘Our priority (in Syria) is the liquidation of the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation,’ Guler said.

‘We have expressed this to our American friends. We expect them to re-evaluate their positions.’

His remarks echoed comments on Friday by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who said Turkey would give the new Syrian government time to tackle the problem.

‘The elimination of the YPG is our strategic goal. We will wait for our brothers in Syria to eliminate the threat in their own land,’ he told the private NTV channel, saying the Kurdish group’s leadership ‘must leave the country’.​

 

[Saif]

Bangladesh reaffirms support for Syrian people

Bangladesh has reaffirmed its steadfast support for the Syrian people and their choices during this critical time, urging all parties to maintain calm and peace throughout the country. Bangladesh also urged all stakeholders, including Syria’s transitional government, to exercise restraint, r

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Bangladesh reaffirms support for Syrian people
UNB
Published :
Dec 15, 2024 21:35
Updated :
Dec 15, 2024 21:35

Bangladesh has reaffirmed its steadfast support for the Syrian people and their choices during this critical time, urging all parties to maintain calm and peace throughout the country.

Bangladesh also urged all stakeholders, including Syria’s transitional government, to exercise restraint, respect the aspirations of Syrians and pursue a peaceful resolution through dialogue.

“The government of Bangladesh is closely monitoring the recent evolving developments in Syria,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Sunday.

Bangladesh reiterated its principal position on territorial integrity and sovereignty in Syria.

In this context, Bangladesh unequivocally condemned the illegal act of aggression by Israel during this moment of critical transition.

Bangladesh believes that the recent development presents a critical opportunity for the Syrian people to rebuild their nation on the principles of inclusivity, democracy and respect for human rights.

Bangladesh called upon the international community, particularly the United Nations, to intensify efforts to protect civilian lives, uphold humanitarian principles, and foster an inclusive political solution consistent with UNSC Resolution 2254.

“It is imperative that all external actions respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the ministry said.

Bangladesh also urged all parties to engage in efforts toward the country’s nation-building, reflecting the will of the Syrian people.

Ensuring a path toward inclusive democracy and sustainable peace remains essential for long-term stability in the region, Dhaka said.​

 

[Saif]

100,000 bodies found in Syrian mass grave

The head of a US-based Syrian advocacy organisation has said that a mass grave outside of Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

www.thedailystar.net

100,000 bodies found in Syrian mass grave
Says advocacy group; Jolani says rebel factions to be ‘disbanded’
​

• Site is one of 5 mass graves identified over the years​
• Victims were people tortured, killed by Assad govt​

The head of a US-based Syrian advocacy organisation has said that a mass grave outside of Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

Mouaz Moustafa, speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview from Damascus on Monday, said the site at al Qutayfah, 25 miles (40 km) north of the Syrian capital, was one of five mass graves that he had identified over the years.

"One hundred thousand is the most conservative estimate" of the number of bodies buried at the site, said Moustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. "It's a very, very extremely almost unfairly conservative estimate."

Moustafa said that he is sure there are more mass graves than the five sites, and that along with Syrians victims included US and British citizens and other foreigners.

Reuters was unable to confirm Moustafa's allegations.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad's crackdown on protests against his rule grew into a full-scale civil war.

Meanwhile, the leader of the rebel group that toppled Assad said Monday that rebel factions in war-torn Syria would be "disbanded", reports AFP.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said on the group's Telegram channel that all the rebel factions "would "be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defence ministry".He stressed the need to end "all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrians can return to their country".​

 

[Saif]

Blinded to Syria

I DO not know anyone who was not shocked by the lightning speed with which Damascus fell to expensively armed jihadist militias last weekend...

www.newagebd.net

Blinded to Syria
Patrick Lawrence 18 December, 2024, 00:00

Israeli army infantry-fighting vehicles are deployed in the UN-patrolled buffer zone separates Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights on December 17. | Agence France-Presse/Jalaa Marey

I DO not know anyone who was not shocked by the lightning speed with which Damascus fell to expensively armed jihadist militias last weekend.

I know very few people who do not understand that another domino has just fallen in the ‘seven-front war’ Benjamin Netanyahu has boasted this year of waging across West Asia. I know very few people who do not recognise that terrorist Israel is well on the way to establishing itself as a dictatorial hegemon across the region.

I know very few people who do not understand that the longstanding project of the Zionist neoconservatives, who have more or less controlled US foreign policy for decades, ie, ‘remaking the Middle East,’ is the design behind all that has occurred since the Israelis launched their attack on Gaza on October 7, 2023.

I do not know anyone who has achieved the age of reason who does not recognize the US hand in the stunning sweep through Syria of Hay`at Tahrir al-Sham, long-recognised as a terrorist organisation. All one needs to grasp this is a little history.

But I know of no corporate or state-funded medium on either side of the Atlantic — the major dailies, the broadcast networks, NPR, PBS, the BBC — where you can read or hear about any of this.

Blinding us

MAINSTREAM media are doing exactly what they did as the US-led ‘regime change’ operation in Syria began in early 2012 at the latest and probably in the final months of 2011: They are making sure the events now unfolding in Syria are not quite illegible but nearly.

It is again a question of knowing the history. In the case of Hay`at Tahrir al-Sham and the other jihadists who knocked over the Assad regime as if it were made of Lego blocks, it is another exercise in dressing up a monster in a suit and tie.

The corporate press and broadcasters are now resolutely recasting the murderous fanatics who have seized control of Syria as legitimate ‘rebels.’ Rebels, rebels, rebels: This is the approved terminology.

I see they have left off describing these Sunni zealots as the ‘moderate rebels’ of yesteryear, that phrase having been hopelessly discredited last time around, but the drift is the same: These are civilised people out there trying to do the right thing.

My favourite in this line appeared in The Daily Telegraph several days before the Assad government collapsed: ‘How Syria’s “diversity-friendly” jihadists plan on building a state.’ I had to read this one twice, too.

Nowhere but nowhere in the west’s mass media can you find even a mention of the US-Turkish-and-probably-Israeli support that made possible the swift sweep of Hay`at Tahrir al-Sham and its ever-bickering allies from its seat in the Idlib governorate through Hama and other cities to the centre of Damascus.

This is, like the earlier years of the western-backed terrorist attacks on the Assad regime, and like the proxy war in Ukraine, and like the Saudis’ US–supported war against Yemen, and like the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, and like the Israelis’ attacks in Lebanon, sponsored military aggression we are not permitted to see without considerable effort to transcend official representations of reality.

Understanding who the Americans are

WHAT happened, what is happening, what will happen: I do not know anyone who is not asking these questions, too.

We must go back and back and back further to understand what has just occurred in Syria and to understand why, and finally to understand who Americans are and who they have been for all the decades since the 1945 victories.

It is logical to begin this pencil-sketch of the past with the famous coups of the 1950s. These occurred in Iran, where the CIA, working with MI6, deposed Mohammed Mossadegh as Iran’s prime minister in August 1953, and in Guatemala, where an agency operation forced Jacobo Árbenz from the presidency a year later.

It is striking today to consider a few of the features of these operations. Stimulating various social and economic antagonisms to foment public unrest and an appearance of political disorder was key in both cases. Both coups removed popularly elected leaders and installed repressive puppets.

There was violence in both cases, but by later standards these operations were something close to surgical. Mossadegh withdrew to his farm in the Iranian countryside; Árbenz, a Swiss pharmacist by background, spent his last years wandering dejectedly through Europe.

An appearance of propriety was important back then. Most Americans were unaware that the CIA had engineered the events in Tehran and Guatemala City. And in the Iranian case, something to note: Removing Iran’s first elected prime minister set in motion a wave of blowback that continues to break over US–Iranian relations; in Guatemala it led to a civil war that endured for 36 years.

The CIA considered the coup in Iran a useful model — Guatemala its next application. But in 1965 the agency began to do things very differently when it organised the coup that brought down Sukarno, independent Indonesia’s charismatic founding father and its first president.

The Jakarta model

VINCENT Bevins, a seasoned foreign correspondent, got this down better than anyone in The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World. With the Cold War approaching its worst years, the Indonesian coup was the first, as Blevins’s subtitle indicates, to submerge an entire nation in prolonged violence.

There are various figures for the number of deaths that resulted as the agency installed the dictatorial, bottomlessly corrupt Suharto in the presidential palace in 1967. Blevins puts it at a million or more. Along with the deaths, the nation’s previously lively political culture was extinguished until Suharto fell 32 years later.

The Jakarta method was subsequently applied in various other circumstances, notably but not only in the 1973 coup that deposed Salvador Allende in Chile and installed Augusto Pinochet, a vicious dictator in the Suharto mould. Nine years later Zbigniew Brzezinski put a modified version to use in Afghanistan.

Blind to US support for jihadism

AS JIMMY Carter’s relentlessly anti-Soviet national security adviser, Brzezinski persuaded Carter to back the mujahideen then fighting the Moscow-backed regime in Kabul. The result was the well-armed, well-financed force named al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden.

And so we come, via the campaigns of mass violence in Iraq and Libya and the proxy war in Ukraine, to the Syrian operation. People who rely on mainstream media still have a hard time accepting that the US and its trans-Atlantic allies backed al-Qaeda’s Syrian forces, the Islamic State, and their heinous offshoots in their war against the Assad regime.

There are no grounds whatsoever for this disbelief. The US operation in Syria is a straight readout of Brzezinski’s Afghanistan strategy. Sharmine Narwani, the tenacious Beirut-based correspondent and the founding editor of The Cradle, reported the American op first-hand as it unfolded. She recounted what she saw in an impressively detailed interview I published in 2019.

It wasn’t over

BY 2018-19, it was obvious that the CIA’s Syrian operation, in my judgment its largest since the Cold War’s end, had failed after several years of Russia’s bombing campaign against the Islamic State. Everyone making this judgment, myself included, forgot to add four essential words: It had failed for the time being.

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham was founded at the start of the covert US intervention, in 2011-12. Its name translates as Organisation for the Liberation of the Levant.

Liberating the Levant is a very good idea, but HTS does not mean this the way anyone opposed to the western powers’ long and violent domination of West Asia would mean it. HTS shared with the Islamic State an ambition to establish a caliphate ruled by radical interpretations of Islamic law.

In May 2018 the State Department added HTS to its list of foreign terrorist organisations, FTOs in the parlance of the apparatchiks. It is a direct descendent of Jabhat al-Nusra, which was the worst of the worst among al-Qaeda’s shape-shifting affiliates operating in Syria.

By the time HTS made the list, Jabhat al-Nusra was already on it. They both remain on it as we speak.

HTS was founded by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, a nom de guerre now all over the news: He has long led HTS and appears now to have plans to make himself Syria’s next president. When he spoke at a celebrated mosque in Damascus last week, he shed the public alias in favour of his real name, Ahmed al-Shara.

Jolani’s background is not to be missed. He was once an Islamic State commander who went on to found Jabhat al-Nusra and, after a violent split, HTS.

As the HTS leader, he was implicated in numerous cases of torture, violence, sexual abuse, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, and so on. Reflecting his singular malignity, the State Department had declared Jolani a ‘specially designated global terrorist’ as far back as 2013.

That designation still stood in 2021. Then something odd, and in hindsight very revealing, occurred.

Rehabilitating Jolani

IN APRIL of that year PBS broadcast the first interview with Jolani ever to appear in any western medium. It was conducted by Martin Smith, a longtime broadcast correspondent with a good reputation.

And there on camera was the specially designated terrorist in a blue blazer and a buttoned-down shirt, telling Smith he planned to build a ‘salvation government’ in Syria.

Smith was not shy, to his credit, in his review of Jolani’s horrific record. But he gave his interview subject ample airtime to make his that-was-then-this-is-now argument.

There was no talk of a caliphate, despite how HTS still named itself. It was about sound local governance. Yes, this would be according to Sharia law, but it would be a kind-and-gentle Sharia law.

The Martin Smith interview, it is now evident, was highly significant for its timing and its implications for US policy. It is almost certain that it signalled an already-in-train revival of the Syrian operation; certainly it marked the start of the preposterous reinvention of Jolani that is now ubiquitous in western media.

It is a long way from those first postwar coups — large in ambition and implications but small in scale as they look to us now. Since the Jakarta method was devised in the mid-1960s, mass murder programs have shaped our world just as Vincent Blevins insightfully put it.

Committed to mass violence

THE questions noted at the start of this commentary remain those we must ask: What happened, what is happening, what will happen. Clarity on these matters arrives by degrees — not by way of official accounts or the corporate press, but in independent media. For now, two conclusions.

One, the US and its trans-Atlantic allies are now thoroughly committed to mass violence. This means it is difficult to avoid concluding that the western powers and Israel will turn to Iran once Syria as a functioning polity has been thoroughly disabled.

What has prompted the US and Israel to exercise caution to date has been the risk of what would without doubt be a cataclysmic conflict that could tip into another world war.

With a six-decade history of mass violence behind them, these powers now appear willing to take this risk. There is little ground left to continue questioning this.

Two, we now witness the reinvention of a viciously intolerant terrorist given to waging holy wars as an acceptable presence at the head of what was a secular nation until earlier this month.

We must read this as the outcome — the successful outcome — of an eight-decade campaign to render the citizens of the western powers grotesquely ignorant of the world in which they live.

The New York Times and other major dailies continue to lie by omission about US support for Jolani and the organisation he leads, even as both are officially designated terrorists. But something worth considering here: These media ran interesting photographs with their initial stories on the militias’ sudden offensive, showing rocket launchers and armoured personnel carriers of obvious western manufacture. Here is one such picture and here is another.

I see these pictures and the accompanying stories as mirrors. They show us exactly who we are, what we have become — and also the extent to which we are encouraged not to see either.

There are no true surprises in what we witness now in Syria. It is an old story. We have been blinded to it, along with many other things to which we have been blinded. Most fundamentally we have been rendered blind to ourselves.

Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, is a media critic, essayist, author and lecturer. His new book, Journalists and Their Shadows, is out now from Clarity Press.​

 

[Saif]

Syria’s new rulers step up engagement with the world

Syria’s new rulers stepped up engagement on Tuesday with countries that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah, with the French flag raised at the embassy for the first time in over a decade...

www.newagebd.net

Syria’s new rulers step up engagement with the world
Agence France-Presse . Damascus 18 December, 2024, 00:15

Syria’s new rulers stepped up engagement on Tuesday with countries that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah, with the French flag raised at the embassy for the first time in over a decade.

Assad fled Syria just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned tanks and other equipment in the face of a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

The collapse of Assad’s rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 led to one of the deadliest wars of the century.

Rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western governments as a terrorist organisation, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric and pledged to protect the country’s religious minorities.

The EU will reopen its mission in Syria following ‘constructive’ talks with its new leadership, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, describing it as a ‘very important step’.

Turkey and Qatar, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, have reopened embassies in Damascus, while US and British officials have launched communications with Syria’s new leaders.

France, an early backer of the uprising, sent a delegation to Damascus on Tuesday, with special envoy Jean-Francois Guillaume saying his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period.

An AFP journalist saw the French flag raised in the embassy’s entrance hall for the first time since the mission was shuttered in 2012.

After meeting Syria’s new leaders, the United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday he was ‘encouraged’, and that there was a ‘basis for ambitious scaling-up of vital humanitarian support’.

German diplomats were also in Damascus on Tuesday, while Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni said her country was ready to engage with the new leadership.

Syria came under international sanctions over Assad’s crackdown on protests, which sparked a war that killed more than 5,00,000 people and forced half of the population to flee their homes.

Assad left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, as well as economic mismanagement that has left 70 per cent of the population in need of aid.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who heads HTS, stressed the need in a meeting with a delegation of British diplomats to end ‘all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country’.

He also said Syria’s rebel factions will be ‘disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defence ministry’.

‘Syria must remain united,’ he said, according to posts on the group’s Telegram channel. ‘There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice’.

The EU’s Kallas said the lifting of sanctions and removing HTS from its blacklist would depend on ‘when we see positive steps, not the words, but actual steps and deeds from the new leadership’.

The United Nations expects one million people to return to Syria in the first half of 2025, after the war pushed six million people to seek refuge abroad.

In Damascus’s old souk, many shops had reopened more than a week since Assad’s ouster, according to an AFP journalist.

Some shopkeepers were painting their store facades white, erasing the colours of the old Syrian flag that under Assad’s rule had become ubiquitous.

‘We have been working non-stop for a week to paint everything white,’ Omar Bashur, a 61-year-old artisan said.

‘White is the colour of peace,’ he added.

Abu Imad, another vendor, was selling vegetables from his car at a square in central Damascus.

‘Everything happened at once: the regime fell, prices dropped, life got better. We hope it isn’t temporary,’ he said.

With Assad gone, the Syrian pound started to recover against the dollar, moneychangers and traders said, as foreign currencies again became available on the local market.

Iran, which backed Assad throughout the civil war, said its embassy in Syria — abandoned and vandalised in the wake of Assad’s fall — would reopen once the ‘necessary conditions’ are met.

Russia was the other main backer of Assad’s rule.

On Monday, the ousted president broke his silence with a statement on Telegram saying that he only left to Russia once Damascus had fallen, and denounced the country’s new leaders as ‘terrorists’.

‘My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles,’ said the statement.

Several former officials had said that Assad was already out of the country hours before the rebels seized Damascus.

Around the country, Syrians deprived for years of news of missing loved ones searched desperately for clues that might help them find closure.

In a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, Radwan Adwan was stacking stones to rebuild his father’s grave, finally able to return to the cemetery.

‘Without the fall of the regime, it would have been impossible to see my father’s grave again,’ said 45-year-old Adwan.

Yarmuk camp was bombed and besieged by Assad’s forces, emptied of most of its residents and reduced to ruins before its recapture in 2018, when access to the cemetery was officially banned.

‘When we arrived, there was no trace of the grave,’ said Adwan.

His mother Zeina sat on a small metal chair in front of her husband’s gravesite.

She was ‘finally’ able to weep for him, she said. ‘Before, my tears were dry.’​

 

[Saif]

Syria conflict not over yet, warns UN envoy

A UN envoy has warned that Syria’s protracted conflict “has not ended yet”, even as victorious rebels stepped up contacts with governments that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah.

www.thedailystar.net

Syria conflict not over yet, warns UN envoy

An Israeli military vehicle operates in Syria, near the ceasefire line between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, as seen from Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights yesterday. PHOTO: REUTERS

A UN envoy has warned that Syria's protracted conflict "has not ended yet", even as victorious rebels stepped up contacts with governments that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah.

Assad fled Syria just over a week ago following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.

However, the United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Tuesday "there have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, before a ceasefire was brokered".

"I am seriously concerned about reports of military escalation. Such an escalation could be catastrophic," said Pedersen, referring to fighting between the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed groups who have captured several Kurdish towns in recent weeks.

"A new Syria that... will adopt a new constitution... and that we will have free and fair elections when that time comes, after a transitional period," he said. Washington said it had brokered an extension to the ceasefire in the flashpoint town of Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Ankara.

The Manbij truce "is extended through the end of the week and we will, obviously, look to see that ceasefire extended as far as possible into the future", State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

That came amid fears of an assault by Turkey on Kurdish-held border town of Kobane. SDF leader Mazloum Abdi proposed in a post on social media platform X the establishment of a "demilitarised zone" in Kobane under US supervision.​

 

[Saif]

Syria’s first flight since Assad’s fall takes off

The first commercial flight since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad took off from Damascus airport on Wednesday, offering Syrians a glimmer of hope after years of war and decades of oppression...

www.newagebd.net

Syria’s first flight since Assad’s fall takes off
Agence France-Presse . Damascus 19 December, 2024, 00:16

A family stands at the destroyed cemetery in the Syrian town of Jobar in Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus on Wednesday. Islamist-led rebels took Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, ousting president Bashar al-Assad and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria. | AFP photo

The first commercial flight since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad took off from Damascus airport on Wednesday, offering Syrians a glimmer of hope after years of war and decades of oppression.

Assad fled Syria following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.

He left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, and the collapse of his rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond.

The country’s new rulers have sought to keep its institutions going and, on Wednesday, 43 people were aboard the flight from Damascus to Aleppo, the first since Assad was toppled and fled to Russia.

Earlier this week, airport staff painted the three-star independence flag on planes, a symbol of the 2011 uprising now adopted by the transitional authorities.

In the terminal, the new flag also replaced the one linked to Assad’s era.

The joy sparked by Assad’s departure has not put an end to the woes of a country wracked by years of civil war and which has become heavily dependent on aid.

Rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist organisation by several Western governments, HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric by assuring protection for the country’s many religious and ethnic minorities.

The military chief of the victorious HTS said it would be ‘the first’ to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the armed forces, after the leader of the group ordered the disbanding of rebel organisations.

‘In any state, all military units must be integrated into this institution,’ Murhaf Abu Qasra, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamawi, said in an interview with AFP.

‘We will be, God willing, among the first to take the initiative (to dissolve our armed wing),’ he said.

HTS has also vowed justice for the crimes committed under Assad’s rule, including the disappearance of tens of thousands of people into the complex web of detention centres and prisons that was used for decades to silence dissent.

‘We want to know where our children are, our brothers,’ said 55-year-old Ziad Alaywi, standing by a ditch near the town of Najha, southeast of Damascus.

It is one of the locations where Syrians believe the bodies of prisoners tortured to death were buried — acts that international organisations say could constitute crimes against humanity.

‘Were they killed? Are they buried here?’ he asked.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, more than 1,00,000 people died or were killed in custody from 2011.

The country’s new rulers have stepped up engagement with countries that had long seen Assad as a pariah, and with international institutions.

EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen said the bloc would intensify its ‘direct engagement’ with the new administration.

Britain, France and Germany have sent delegations to Damascus, while Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni said Rome was ‘ready to engage with the new Syrian leadership’, but urged ‘maximum caution’.

Members of the UN Security Council, which includes Assad ally Russia as well as the United States, called on Tuesday for an ‘inclusive and Syrian-led’ political process.

‘This political process should meet the legitimate aspirations of all Syrians, protect all of them and enable them to peacefully, independently and democratically determine their own futures,’ a statement said.

It also ‘underlined the need for Syria and its neighbours to mutually refrain from any action... that could undermine each other’s security’.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets since Assad’s overthrow in what it says is a bid to prevent them falling into hostile hands.

Israeli troops also occupied strategic positions in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in a move UN chief Antonio Guterres described as a breach of the 1974 armistice.

The United Nations’ special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, warned Tuesday that the country’s protracted conflict ‘has not ended yet’.

He said he was concerned about reports of escalation between US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish-backed groups who have captured several Kurdish towns in recent weeks.

The United States later announced it had brokered an extension to the ceasefire in the flashpoint town of Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Turkey.

The leader of the SDF proposed a ‘demilitarised zone’ in the northern town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab.

Speaking to AFP, Abu Qasra, the HTS military chief, said Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the country’s new leadership, adding that the group rejects federalism.

Kurdish-held areas of Syria would be integrated under the country’s new leadership, adding that the group rejects federalism and that ‘Syria will not be divided’.

‘The Kurdish people are one of the components of the Syrian people Syria will not be divided and there will be no federal entities,’ he said.​

 

[Lulldapull]

This is all propaganda news no?

Iran's pushed out, Hezb isolated now. Palestinian resistance with even more difficulty getting any assistance.

What's there to celebrate now? unless yous a Zionist?

 

[Sharma Ji]

This is all propaganda news no?

Iran's pushed out, Hezb isolated now. Palestinian resistance with even more difficulty getting any assistance.

What's there to celebrate now? unless yous a Zionist?

Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza (to an extent) was always about Iran.. bhai Tehran.. ghar m ghus k Haniyeh, Sinwar, Nasrallah ...

and they been bombing Yemen now.. je dekho, ekdum latest newj

 

[Krishna with Flute]

‘Syria is ours and not Assad family's’
Celebrations across Syria as rebels oust Assad; president ‘flees country’; nations urge stability

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Photo: AFP Syrians celebrate the taking over of the capital Damascus by Syrian rebel fighters in Beirut's Triq al Jdideh neighbourhood on December 8, 2024.

Celebrations erupted around Syria and crowds ransacked President Bashar al-Assad's luxurious home yesterday after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared he had fled the country, in a spectacular end to five decades of Baath party rule.

Assad's whereabouts were not immediately clear, but his key backer Russia said he had resigned from the presidency and left Syria.

Residents in the capital were seen cheering in the streets as the rebel factions heralded the departure of "tyrant" Assad, saying: "We declare the city of Damascus free."

AFPTV footage showed a column of smoke rising from central Damascus, and AFP correspondents in the city saw dozens of men, women and children wandering through Assad's luxurious home after it had been looted.

The rooms of the residence had been left completely empty, save some furniture and a portrait of Assad discarded on the floor, while an entrance hall at the presidential palace not far away had been torched.

"I can't believe I'm living this moment," tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone.

"We've been waiting a long time for this day," he said, adding: "We are starting a new history for Syria."

Assad's reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning offensive.

"After 50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crimes and tyranny and (forced) displacement... we announce today the end of this dark period and the start of a new era for Syria," the rebel factions said on Telegram.

While there has been no communication from Assad or his entourage on his whereabouts, Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali said he was ready to cooperate with "any leadership chosen by the Syrian people".

The head of war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP: "Assad left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left" the facility.

AFP has been unable to independently verify some of the information provided by the different parties, including the reported departure.

Around the country, people toppled statues of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad's father and the founder of the system of government that he inherited.

For the past 50 years in Syria, even the slightest suspicion of dissent could land one in prison or get one killed.

As rebels entered the capital, HTS said its fighters broke into a jail on the outskirts of Damascus, announcing an "end of the era of tyranny in the prison of Sednaya", which has become a by-word for the darkest abuses of Assad's era.

The rapid developments came just hours after HTS said it had captured the strategic city of Homs, where prisoners were also released.

Homs was the third major city seized by the rebels, who began their advance on November 27, reigniting a years-long war that had become largely dormant.

US President Joe Biden was keeping a close eye on the "extraordinary events" unfolding in Syria, the White House said. He was scheduled to meet with his national security advisors over Syria.

US president-elect Donald Trump said that Assad had "fled his country" after losing Russia's backing.

Assad's rule had for years also been supported by Lebanese group Hezbollah, whose forces "vacated their positions around Damascus", a source close to it said yesterday.

Rebel factions aired a statement on Syrian state television, saying they had toppled the "tyrant" Assad and urged fighters and citizens to safeguard the "property of the free Syrian state".

State TV later broadcast a message proclaiming the "victory of the great Syrian revolution".

According to the rebels, the Islamist leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, arrived in Damascus yesterday.

HTS, which has roots in the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, yesterday announced a curfew in Damascus until the following morning.

Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has sought to soften its image in recent years, and has told minority groups living in areas it now controls not to worry.

Before yesterday's announcements, Damascus residents had described to AFP a state of panic as traffic jams clogged the city centre, with people seeking supplies and queueing to withdraw money.

But morning saw chants and cheering, with celebratory gunfire and shouts of "Syria is ours and not the Assad family's".

Before Damascus, a string of towns and cities, including the northern city of Aleppo, had fallen from Assad's hands.

In a sign of the complexity of Syria's war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said he had ordered the Israeli military to "seize" a demilitarised buffer zone on the border with Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

The Israeli premier said a 50-year-old "disengagement agreement" between the two countries had collapsed and "Syrian forces have abandoned their positions".

Israel yesterday struck Syrian army weapons depots on the outskirts of Damascus, according to the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources around the country.

Israeli strikes also targeted government security buildings in Damascus yesterday.

"Israeli strikes targeted a security complex in Damascus near the former regime's buildings" including intelligence, customs and a military headquarters, said the Observatory. An AFP photographer saw buildings ablaze in the security complex, which includes military intelligence.

Netanyahu said the overthrow of Assad was a "historic day in the... Middle East" and the fall of a "central link in Iran's axis of evil".

The rebel offensive began the very day a ceasefire took effect in Lebanon after nearly a year of war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The UN envoy for Syria said Syria was at "a watershed moment", while Turkey, which has historically backed the opposition, called for a "smooth transition".

Iran, a key backer of Assad throughout the civil war years, said it expected "friendly" ties with Syria to continue, even as its embassy in Damascus was vandalised.

Jordan urged its citizens to leave neighbouring Syria "as soon as possible", as have the United States and Russia, which both keep troops in Syria.

Since the rebels' offensive began, at least 826 people, mostly combatants but also including 111 civilians, have been killed, the Observatory said.

The United Nations said the violence has displaced 370,000 people.​

US plot. This everything was in US agenda. Syria done, BD done, Iraq Done.

 

[Krishna with Flute]

Iraq

Libya

Lubnaan

Syria

Forget BD?

All these countries were progressive and doing very well in totalitarian regime. Iraq was peaceful under Saddam, Libya was doing very well under Gaddafi. Education upto P. Hd. was free in Libya under Gaddafi. They would have become very nice nation under those so-called dictators.

Our BD friends Like S @Saif and @Bilal9 have no idea of what they are supporting when they support the illegitimate regime change in BD. They are heading towards an Iraq and Syria like situation. As soon as Deep states interest is served, they will be abandoned into the anarchy. People say that Hasina was dictator, but they do not realize that in a country like BD where cue can happen at any time, what she did was best. Now BD should be ready to pay the price.

 

[Saif]

Forget BD?

All these countries were progressive and doing very well in totalitarian regime. Iraq was peaceful under Saddam, Libya was doing very well under Gaddafi. Education upto P. Hd. was free in Libya under Gaddafi. They would have become very nice nation under those so-called dictators.

Our BD friends Like S @Saif and @Bilal9 have no idea of what they are supporting when they support the illegitimate regime change in BD. They are heading towards an Iraq and Syria like situation. As soon as Deep states interest is served, they will be abandoned into the anarchy. People say that Hasina was dictator, but they do not realize that in a country like BD where cue can happen at any time, what she did was best. Now BD should be ready to pay the price.

Whatever happened in Bangladesh is called student revolution. It was not a mere regime change. There were no freedom of speech and human rights in Bangladesh during Sheikh Hasina's rule. I don't know why you are supporting a brutal autocrat like Sheikh Hasina.

 

[Sharma Ji]

Forget BD?

All these countries were progressive and doing very well in totalitarian regime. Iraq was peaceful under Saddam, Libya was doing very well under Gaddafi. Education upto P. Hd. was free in Libya under Gaddafi. They would have become very nice nation under those so-called dictators.

Our BD friends Like S @Saif and @Bilal9 have no idea of what they are supporting when they support the illegitimate regime change in BD. They are heading towards an Iraq and Syria like situation. As soon as Deep states interest is served, they will be abandoned into the anarchy. People say that Hasina was dictator, but they do not realize that in a country like BD where cue can happen at any time, what she did was best. Now BD should be ready to pay the price.

They didn't figure in Wesley Clark's list.