SHIFTING SANDS IN MIDDLE EAST

The collapse of Syria's Alawite regime—paving the way for Islamist resurgence—could lead to renewed religious radicalisation in the region, alongside fresh geopolitical tensions and potential shifts in Middle-East dynamics

- DIPANKAR DEY

On December 8, a major political change took place in the Middle East. The regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria crumbled as rebel forces took control of Syria's capital Damascus. Assad fled the country that his family had ruled for over fifty years and sought refuge in Russia.

Since March 2011, following the 'Arab Spring,' a series of uprisings and protests that spread across the Arab world starting in late 2010 had a major impact on many countries, including Syria. Assad had been facing a civil war triggered by the democratic protests of the Arab Spring. His forces had been maintaining control over most of the country; opposition groups held the northwest and the Kurds controlled the northeast. According to media reports, the civil war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced twelve million—more than half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million.

Several international rights groups and prosecutors alleged widespread use of torture and extrajudicial killings in Syria's government-run detention centers.

The Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel factions, backed by Turkey, had been attempting to overthrow Assad for a long time. He met them with military force supported by Iran, Iranian-backed militias like Hezbollah and Russia. Washington maintained its presence in eastern Syria and collaborated with the People's Defence Units (YPG), a socialist Kurdish militant group in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—a Kurdish-led coalition of US-backed left-wing ethnic militias and rebel groups that serves as the official military wing of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Some 900 US troops are stationed there alongside the YPG.