The course of events until the fall of Bashar Al-Assad
In just over ten days, and to everyone’s surprise, the rebels led by the Islamists of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTC) seized the main cities of Syria and brought down President Bashar Al-Assad. Chronological review of the events that led to this historic night:
- November 27: the offensive begins
HTC, a movement dominated by the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, and rebels supported by Turkey attack territories controlled by the Al-Assad regime in the province of Aleppo (North) from Idlib, last major rebel and jihadist bastion in Syria. The regime responds with airstrikes.
- November 29: rebels at the gates of Aleppo
The rebel coalition bombs Aleppo and arrives at the gates of the city, the second largest in the country and its economic heart, after having seized more than fifty other localities in the North. The Syrian army and its Russian ally responded with intensive air raids on Idlib and its region.
- November 30: Most of Aleppo in rebel hands
Rebels take control of most of Aleppo, including the airport, government buildings and prisons. Russian aircraft bomb Aleppo for the first time since the total recapture of the city by regime forces in 2016. The coalition also seizes the strategic city of Saraqeb.
- 1is December: fall of Aleppo
Rebels take control of Aleppo, which is completely out of regime hands for the first time since the start of the civil war in 2011. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), the insurgents have advanced “without encountering significant resistance”.
- December 2: Iran and Russia to the aid of Al-Assad
Pro-Turkish rebel groups take the town of Tal Rifaat (North), which was in the hands of Kurdish forces. Russia and Iran provide support “unconditional” to Al-Assad’s Syria. Syrian and Russian planes bomb rebel areas in northwest Syria, killing at least eleven people.
- December 5: fall of Hama
The rebels take control of the country’s fourth city, Hama, where a statue of former president Hafez Al-Assad – father of Bashar Al-Assad – is toppled by the population. In nearby Homs, panicked residents are fleeing en masse. The toll from a week of fighting exceeds 700 deaths, according to the OSDH.
- December 7: fall of Homs
The rebels take Homs, the country’s third city. Rebels say they have freed more than 3,500 detainees from Homs prison.
They take control of the entire province of Deraa (South), cradle of the 2011 uprising, and are 20 kilometers from Damascus.
Government forces are withdrawing from the province of Qouneitra, on the Golan Heights, and, facing Kurdish forces, from sectors of the province of Deir ez-Zor (East) which they controlled.
- December 7 and 8: rebels in Damascus, Al-Assad flees
On the night of December 7 to 8, the HTC announced that it had entered Damascus and taken Saydnaya prison, a symbol of the regime’s worst abuses. The rebels and the OSDH announce that Bashar Al-Hassad has left Syria by plane, after twenty-four years in power. Shortly after his departure, the Damascus airport was abandoned by government forces.
Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali says he is ready to cooperate with “any leadership that the Syrian people choose”.
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