A lightning operation launched at the end of last November has opened a new chapter in the Syrian civil war. Since the conflict began in 2011, Bassar al Assad has remained in power, supported by Russia and Iran. A regime that until just 11 days ago, despite its weakening by a chronic war, seemed to have no cracks. Today, he has been overthrown by a coalition of Islamist militias and Al Assad has left the country by plane after the fall of the capital.
Behind the attack are the Islamists of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), a faction of the former Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, whose leader Al Jolaini has already made his intentions clear: to recover a “national” caliphate in Syria and “overthrow the Assads”, in power for more than five decades .
The taking of Aleppo
On November 27, the HTS left Idlib, a city located in the northwest of the country, heading to Aleppo, the country’s second largest city. In just three days of fighting and bombing, they took control of the city, except for small neighborhoods controlled by Kurdish minorities.
The fall of Hama
The advance of the rebel militias continued from Aleppo towards Hama, the country’s fourth largest city.
The HTS forces managed to break the defenses of the Syrian Army, which retreated positions in the town, although it held out in combat for several hours. Finally, last Thursday the Army loyal to Al Assad gave up and the authorities abandoned the city.
The leader of HTS, Al Jolaniissued a statement announcing the capture of Hama. «The mujahideen, the revolutionaries, They have begun to enter the city of Hama to clean the wound that has existed in Syria for 40 years,” he said.
That “wound” is nothing other than the military operation launched in 1982 by the regime of Hafez al Assad – father of Bassar al Assad – to put down the Islamist uprising against the secular dictatorship, which the Muslim Brotherhood began in 1979 and which ended four years later with a cruel massacre of more than 10,000 Syrians.
Homs, strategic enclave
After Hama, the militias heading to Damascus conquered Homs, about 160 kilometers from the Syrian capital and a key bastion of the Al Assad regime. The combat in Homs began this Saturday, and the city fell in just a few hours between crossed speeches between the regime and the militias. While the rebels announced the release of 3,500 prisoners, the regime denied having lost control of the city.
With a message on Telegram, the rebels proclaimed the capture of Homs: “We announce the complete liberation of the city of Homs.” In just 24 hours of progressthe rebels had conquered Homs, and three other cities.
With the capture of Homs, the militias dealt a severe blow to the regime: they suffocated the road route that connects Damascus with the Russian base in Tartus, one of the strategic military enclaves.
The assault on Damascus: final phase
«Our forces have begun the final phase». This is how an HTS commander announced this Saturday that the militias were arriving in Damascus and that the operation was entering a new stage.
By early afternoon, the rebel advance had already reached the outskirts of the capital, prompting the deployment of the Syrian Army. «No one can penetrate this line of defense“said the Minister of Defense, Mohamed Al Rahmun.
At dawn, the rebel troops broke all the military defenses of Damascus and announced the liberation of Damascus. In the Umayyad Square, the noise of gunshots as a sign of joy was mixed with the cries of “Allahu Akbar” (“God is the greatest”) and state television announced the fall of Bassar al Assad.
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