Syrian dictator Bashar Assad flees into exile as Islamist rebels conquer the country

JERUSALEM—Bashar Assad, a Western-trained ophthalmologist who used chemical weapons on his own people on multiple occasions, fled Syria after an uprising against his brutal regime led to the rapid loss of major cities and towns that began in late November. .

Assad and his British-born wife, Asma al-Assad, fled with their three children to…

After one of the bloodiest civil wars this century, the 13-year-old conflict in the Islamic heartland that looked set to topple the Assad regime appears to be over, at least for now.

The fall of more than 50 years of rule of the Assad family over the Syrian Arab Republic is a major turning point in power politics in the Middle East.

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A coalition of many Islamist groups has overthrown the Iran-backed Assad regime. The US-designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist rebel group, played a key role in ousting Assad, who succeeded him as president in 2000 following the death of his father. , Hafez Assad.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the Islamist leader of HTS, who has a $10 million bounty on his head from the US, wants to present a distorted version of the radical Islamism that defined his years of fighting in Syria and Iraq against it. American soldiers. Al-Golani was arrested by US forces in the first decade of this century.

Syrian experts told Fox News Digital that HTS wants to impose a totalitarian Islamist regime on the people. Phillip Smyth, an expert on the group representing the regime of Iran and Syria, at the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital, “HTS is a group that comes out of Al-Qaeda and is connected to Turkey. Their goal is to create a Talibanesque Society with a few tweaks.”

Rebels in Northwestern Syria Seize Government Military Vehicles on the Road to Kweris Airport in the Eastern Province of Aleppo on December 2, 2024. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP)

Assad’s decision in 2011 to launch a crackdown on Syrian pro-democracy activists during the Arab Spring uprisings, which swept Egypt and Tunisia, led to a protracted civil war. Assad’s brutal policy against his own country’s citizens resulted in the deaths of more than 500,000 people. The UN recently announced that it has stopped counting the number of people who have died.

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The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Egyptian and Jordanian officials urged Assad to flee Syria and form a government in exile. The Jordanian government denied the report.

In 2015, Assad’s regime was on the verge of collusion when Vladimir Putin’s Russia intervened to save the dictatorship. Lebanon’s US-sanctioned terrorist organization, Hezbollah, and its main sponsor, Iran, are both vocal about the Assad regime.

Rebel forces fired back at Assad’s forces—quickly capturing the major Syrian cities of Aleppo, Hamas, and Homs—shaking Putin and Iran. Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion of its territory has weakened Moscow. Israel has launched several airstrikes against Iran’s military infrastructure since Tehran’s ally, Hamas, launched a surprise attack against the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.

Portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and his late father and predecessor, Hafez, hang on the wall of a destroyed house in the southern Lebanese city of Bint Jbeil, 17 August 2006. (PATRICK BAZ/AFP via Getty Images)

The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2254 in 2015, which called for a ceasefire, UN-facilitated elections and a new constitution. Assad refused to implement the resolution.

After Assad launched a shocking chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people in 2013, in which more than 1,400 people were killed, President Obama’s administration reneged on its promise to take military action against Assad.

The roots of Assad’s brutality can be traced back to a group of schoolboys in the dusty southwestern city of Daraa—the heartland of the Syrian uprising—in 2011. / I want / a coup!”

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left), Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (center), Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right). ((Fox News/Getty Images))

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Assad’s cousin, Gen. Atef Najeeb, oversaw the campaign that involved the report of abuse of 15 arrested boys between the ages of 10 and 15 years old. Syrian officials tore off the boy’s fingernails and burned them.

Syrian Islamist forces ousted the Assad regime on Friday from Daraa.