No power is eternal. No matter how authoritarian he is. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, 59, finally has the bitter experience of this. Cornered for twelve days by a lightning offensive by Syrian rebels, he fled his fortress in Damascus on the night of Saturday December 7 to Sunday December 8 and abandoned the country by flying from the capital's international airport, according to the The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), an NGO based in Great Britain but with numerous relays in Syria.
The last survivor of the Arab Spring, which saw many Middle Eastern countries ignite to overthrow their dictators, falls in turn, abandoned by the army and security forces, after twenty-four years in power. “Assad left Syria via Damascus airport, before the withdrawal of members of the armed and security forces” of the site, reports the director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahmane, to AFP at around 4 a.m. “We declare the city of Damascus liberated from the tyrant Bashar Al-Assad, rebels from the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) also announced on Telegram. This is the moment that the displaced and prisoners have been waiting for for a long time, the moment of return home and the moment of freedom after decades of oppression and suffering.” Comments subsequently repeated on public television. They also called on Syrians displaced abroad to return to a “Free Syria” and to safeguard the assets of the Syrian State «libre».
Half an hour earlier, the fighters announced that they had taken Sednaya prison, in Damascus, and freed the inmates of this penitentiary establishment, symbol of the worst abuses of al-Assad's forces, described as a “human slaughterhouse”. The first images published on the networks show a detainee prostrate on the ground, terrified, unable to answer the question “what is your name?”.
The HTS group, which leads the rebel coalition, had just entered the capital, where residents told AFP they had heard heavy gunfire. Earlier that night, they captured the city of Homs. After the announcement of the escape of the “butcher of Damascus”, the Prime Minister said he was ready to cooperate with the «leadership» what the people will choose, and also said he was ready for any procedure of “handover”. The leader of the rebel coalition called on his fighters not to approach public institutions in Damascus.
Rapid progress
It therefore took thirteen years of a terrible civil war for the butcher of Damascus to leave, fleeing, constrained and forced. After more than half a million deaths. One of the worst migration crises in history. A self-proclaimed deadly caliphate which, for a time only, will have shaken the planet and exported its soldiers of misfortune even to European concert halls. All this because a man refused to cede the power that his father before already imposed on him with an iron fist.
However, just two weeks ago, Bashar al-Assad still seemed so deeply seated in his chair as dictator president, still supported by his Russian and Iranian allies. The decapitation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the reluctance of Tehran and Moscow, already busy elsewhere, to support Bashar al-Assad, who was also very weakened internally, allowed a broad coalition, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and withdrawn for years around the city of Idlib, returned to the path of war on Wednesday, November 27. In just three days, they took Aleppo, the country's second city, already martyred at the start of the civil war.
As early as last weekend, rumors of gunfire in Damascus suggested what no one dared to believe: the probable fall of the all-powerful president. His army promised a counter-offensive. Without success. Each day that has passed since then has continued to bear witness to its weakness and its disintegration. Until the capture, Thursday, December 5 in the afternoon, of the town of Hama, 140 km south of Aleppo, on the road to Homs. The rapid advance of rebel forces left Bashar with no choice but to flee to save his life and that of his loved ones.
At the same time freeing the millions of Syrians who have been victims of its yoke for so many years. And who will dream of one day seeing him judged for his crimes. His departure now opens a question, as worrying as it is unknown: who will succeed him? What can we do after so many years of horror to restore such a wounded and fragmented country? The leader of the Tahrir al-Sham group is currently displaying a rather very moderate facade. It remains to be seen whether this is a reality or an artifice of circumstance.
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