Syria after Assad

The swift collapse of Syria's regime opens the door for greater Turkish influence in the region, not to mention, the Islamist movement that seized power has yet to show its full intentions in determining the way forward

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After fending off rebels for 13 years, defying then-President Barack Obama's "red line" against using chemical weapons, and continuing a half-century of iron-fisted rule of Syria with help from allies in Moscow and Tehran, Bashar al-Assad's regime collapsed amid a lightning offensive by anti-government forces.

Assad, now refuged in Russia, leaves a dilemma regarding the fate of Syria and the Middle East. More than 507,000 Syrians perished during the civil war; in a rare agreement, President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump attributed Assad's defeat to his debilitated allies' inability to help him any longer. Iran and its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, "chose to launch a multifront war against Israel," Biden was quoted as saying, which was "a historic mistake on Iran's part."

In just two weeks, Syrian rebels have swept from their enclave in the north-west to capture a string of major cities, before reaching the capital Damascus and toppling Assad.

In convoys of small vehicles and motorbikes, fighters led by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rushed along the north-south highway which forms the country's main spine to take Damascus without resistance.

But while many in the country are celebrating the downfall of a family dynasty that ruled Syria with an iron fist, the future is uncertain and the situation on the ground remains in flux with a number of different rebel groups controlling different parts of the country.

The fall of the Assad regime was brought about by the sudden and unexpected advance by HTS rebels but, although the group controls Syria's main cities, it does not govern the whole country.

Syria has for years been controlled by a patchwork of rebel groups, including HTS in Idlib and Kurdish-led groups in the country's northeast, some of which have also taken territory in recent days and weeks.