Syrian opposition forces outside the Aleppo citadel
Posted on 11/30/2024 7:53:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind
As the sun set on Syria’s north-western city of Aleppo, a group of rebel fighters reached Al-Basel square.
Towering over the junction is a statue of president Bashar al-Assad’s brother, Bassel, a Syrian army general who was widely anticipated to take over the leadership of the country from his father, Hafez before he died in a car crash in 1994.
The monument was meant to symbolise the regime’s strength. But on Friday, fighters pulled down its adjoining Syrian flag as they captured at least five of the city’s neighbourhoods.
Videos poured on to social media, many released by the slick media channels of the jihadist groups leading the advance, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement.
In one, fighters stream through the streets of the city, meeting next to no resistance.
They drove a Soviet T-55 tank past the international stadium, which once played host to the Syrian national football team in the years before the civil war.
The speed of the rebel advance has sent shockwaves across the Middle East.
Between 2012 and 2016, the battle of Aleppo was an inch-by-inch struggle over streets or single homes that left an estimated 30,000 people dead.
After the rebels were finally driven out of the city in December 2016, one picture summed up a dogged determination to continue the fight.
A young couple – the man with a Kalanshnikov slung on his back – stand in front of a graffitied wall that reads simply: “we will return”.
On Friday, they had.
By late evening, fighters posed with their flag outside the Aleppo citadel in the city’s centre, as they claimed the capture of the entire city, home to 2 million people.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This is a huge development. The Rebels have taken control of the Aleppo Triangle, which had been conquered by the Syrians with Russian and Iranian support. Apparently, the Iranians have moved out their support for Assad, and the Russians are busy in Ukraine and no longer see the importance in maintaining control. It is possible that Assad will fall in a matter of hours or days. Netanyahu converted a Sabbath day meeting in Israel, which is rare, to try to figure out what Israel should do.
ISIS/Al Qaeda?
Is this good or bad?
If the rebels are led by strict muslims, I assume that would be worse.
But I honestly have not been following it and know very little of it.
Sickening. We created and protected this Isis/al nusra/rebel army and they might take over Syria? Good work DOD and CIA.
By some estimates, there are 1000 different rebel groups in Syria (not kidding). So don’t feel bad if you don’t know what’s going on. I don’t think anyone does.
I just hope Trump 2.0 stays out of it. The whole area has been a mass of quicksand for 3000 years. Nothing we can do will change that.
Appears that it’s potentially good. They aspouse theselves as being anti tyranical democracy rientated and more in line with the original charter from post WWII.
Overall they are quite a diverse group.
Just part of our present WWIII proxy war - the UK, US, Israel and Turkey are going all-out with their Al Qaeda, Sunni-Islamist proxies in Syria prior to Trump getting involved in Ukraine.
Ever heard of declaring victory to soon?
It will become a base for Islamists to take over Iraq.
Plenty of ongoing reports of Assad’s Army just fleeing, apparently hoping for Iran and Russia to intervene more dramatically than they have been.
That is why Netanyahu’s cabinet met on Shabbat, which they seldom do - to try to answer the question that you posed. It is definitely a huge change, and I think it means that Iran is pulling back support from their surrogates.
“It will become a base for Islamists to take over Iraq.”
Yeah, that’s what Iraqi Sunnis (AIQ/ISIS) thought. It didn’t work out that well for them.
A Muslim journalist embedded with various rebel groups said, the difference is, one group wants to burn non Muslims to death in cages. The others just want to kill them.
I notice Turkey is advertising as US tourist destination.
Collapsing just like the Russian invasion of Ukraine will eventually.
Apparently, Assad has been in St. Petersburg for months. There have been various speculations about the situation.
That is a good guess. The Russians might be telling him that he is on his own as far as he is concerned and Iran will have to take over if they can. That is why it is a huge concern to Israel.
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