After Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resigned Sunday and ordered a peaceful transfer of power to “rebel” forces led by the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militia, U.S. and Israeli warplanes have launched a massive bombing campaign against Syria.
Washington and its regional allies initiated the rape and carving up of Syria. As the Israeli army attacks north towards Damascus, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) attacks the south, targeting Kurdish forces in northern Syria, and HTS takes power in areas previously controlled by Assad. Statements by Israeli officials make it clear that the US-Israeli bombings are aimed at destroying Syria’s ability to defend itself militarily.
On Tuesday evening, Israeli military sources told the Jerusalem Post that they had carried out 350 airstrikes on “the majority of strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria”. US warplanes struck 75 other targets across the country. Israeli targets included air defense systems, missile stockpiles, airfields, warplanes, tanks, drone fleets and military production facilities in cities including Damascus, Homs, Palmyra, Latakia and Tartus . Israel also reportedly sank the Syrian navy at anchor in Al-Bayda and Latakia.
The US-Israeli strikes face no opposition from Syrian air defenses. Israeli officials told the Post that they had “extensive operational freedom” in Syria.
Washington’s arming of Israel throughout its genocide in Gaza has proven to be part of a broader offensive aimed at subjugating the entire region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained this in a very direct manner during a press conference held on Monday. Hailing the collapse of the Assad regime as “a dramatic new chapter” in history, Netanyahu proclaimed: “We are changing the face of the Middle East.”
Israeli units crossed the Syrian border to capture parts of the Golan Heights and launched an armored offensive north towards Damascus. Al Jazeera reports that the Israeli tanks were only 25 km from Damascus and were near Damascus airport. Israeli authorities have denied that their forces are so close to Damascus but are calling for the creation of a “sterile” Israeli-controlled buffer zone between the Golan Heights and the Syrian capital.
On Tuesday morning, during a visit to the Haifa naval base, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced: “Together with the Prime Minister, I ordered the military to establish a defense zone barren, free of weapons and terrorist threats, in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence.” Whether or not there is a permanent Israeli military presence, such a zone would leave the city of Damascus permanently at the mercy of Israeli attack.
While US and European media claim that the transfer of power from Assad to HTS brings Syria a new democratic dawn, reports on the ground paint a different picture. Sunni Islamist militias supported by NATO powers and Israel are terrorizing the population, particularly the Christian, Druze and Shiite Alawite communities.
Cardinal Mario Zenari, the Catholic Church’s envoy to Syria, described the situation in Aleppo after its capture by HTS to Vatican News: “In some areas it is quite calm, but it is suspicious. There is a lot of fear, government offices have closed, as well as the army, which has disappeared. Armed groups are circulating and promising not to attack the civilian population. So far, it appears they have kept that promise, but people are still terrified and shutting themselves inside their homes. … Fear, terror and uncertainty reign.”
Videos are already circulating on social media showing HTS fighters executing Alawites in the street. HTS, like the broader al-Qaeda networks and their backers in the Sunni oil emirates of the Persian Gulf, is violently hostile to Shiite Islam, Shiite-majority Iran, and the Alawites, the community to which Assad belongs. . Video shows HTS forces executing what they claim are Alawites in Latakia:
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Another video shows an HTS fighter threatening and shooting two men he says are Alawites:
U.S. officials hail HTS victory as a devastating blow to Russia and Iran, which have backed the Assad regime in a nearly 14-year war against NATO-backed Islamist militias initiated by Washington in 2011. Assad invited Iranian, then Russian, forces to fight militias linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, which enjoyed NATO support but little popular support. Today, U.S. officials rejoice that their support for Israel against Gaza and Hezbollah, and for Ukraine’s war against Russia, has weakened Russia and Iran, allowing Washington to crush Syria .
“Our approach has changed the balance of power in the Middle East,” outgoing US President Joe Biden said on Sunday. “For the first time, neither Russia, nor Iran, nor Hezbollah were able to defend this abominable regime in Syria. This is the direct result of the blows taken by Ukraine and Israel to defend themselves, with the unwavering support of the United States.”
In reality, putting Al-Qaeda forces in power in Syria is a monumentally irresponsible and criminal action that will inevitably have consequences unintended by Washington. It will not resolve the bloody proxy wars between Israel, Turkey, Iran and the world’s major powers for influence in Syria and the Middle East, but will ultimately pave the way for their escalation.
In this context, the order given by Assad to his regime to cede power to the Islamist “rebels” and the collapse of the Syrian army are a bitter experience of the bankruptcy and betrayal of the Arab bourgeoisie. The speed of the collapse of the Syrian regime indicates not only Assad’s deliberate withdrawal, but also the complicity of his backers in Moscow and Tehran.
The Kremlin, which has withdrawn its warships from its Syrian naval base in Tartus, has not offered an explanation for Assad’s collapse. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed yesterday that Assad was in Moscow, but refused to elaborate on the reasons for his flight. “He is safe, and this shows that Russia is doing the right thing in such an extraordinary situation. I have no idea what’s going on with him right now. It would be a mistake for me to dwell on what happened and how the situation was resolved,” he said.
On Monday, however, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency published an article detailing growing conflicts between Tehran and Assad before the HTS offensive. According to this article, Iranian military commanders traveled to Syria amid signs that HTS was preparing an offensive in areas of northern Syria controlled by Turkey and the United States. According to Mehr, “Iranian officials, after hours of consultation on the evolution of the situation in Syria, concluded that, this time, the conditions for Iran’s military assistance to Bashar Assad were not met” .
The collapse of the Assad regime after a 14-year war is in any case a severe lesson in the bankruptcy of a bourgeois nationalist strategy to oppose imperialism. Opposing the descent into barbarism requires the international mobilization and unification of working class opposition to imperialist war and genocide, on the basis of a struggle for socialism.
