Posted on 12/07/2024 12:53:18 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Syrian opposition fighters have reached the suburbs of the Damascus capital for the first time since the region was recaptured by government troops in 2018, as president Bashar al-Assad's regime nears collapse.
One resident said the city was on edge, with security forces on the streets and many shops running out of staple foods.
The Syrian army withdrew from much of the country's south on Saturday but later said it was fortifying positions in the Damascus suburbs and in the south.
Syria's state news agency denied reports that Assad had already fled to Russia claiming he continued to govern from Damascus.
However, following the statement claiming it was 'false news', a source has told CNN that Assad was 'nowhere to be found' at his usual residences in the capital.
Lebanon said it is closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for a main one that links Beirut with Damascus. Jordan closed a border crossing with Syria because of the security situation on the Syrian side.
The rapidly developing events in Syria have again put the region on edge.
Government forces reportedly withdrew as rebel groups amassed in the city's suburbs, wrestling for control after more than a week of intensified fighting.
Armed groups reached the suburb of Darayya this afternoon, some five miles from the centre, according to the Turkish Anadolu Agency.
'Our forces have begun the final phase of encircling the capital, Damascus,' said rebel commander Hassan Abdel Ghani today, with the Islamist-led alliance that launched the offensive 10 days ago.
'Damascus awaits you,' HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said in a statement Saturday addressed to rebel fighters on Telegram.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Bashar al-Assad has been terrible for Syria.
I am not sure that any likely replacement will be any better.
If I remember correctly, Syria has an Air Force. Why isn’t Assad killing the rebel force? IIRC, last time he did it with chemical warfare and killed thousands in the process. I’m guessing Uncle Vlad requested Assad’s presence to tell him to stand down and let this play out.
I am not sure that any likely replacement will be any better.
With the functional equivalent of ISIS in charge, I think we can be pretty sure it will be a lot worse, particularly for the Alawites, Kurds, and Lebanese Christians. I don't know what the local demographic distributions are by location, but suspect that will soon be in rapid flux.
Maybe all of Assad's officers in the military are in Dubai. If they're corrupt like the Russian military, that could very well be the case. Syria is a narco economy that is run on captagon.
Without Assad's officers on the ground to lead the soldiers, they are not going to fight on the battlefield.
Once the rebels arrives, Assad's soldiers are going just to "melt away".
If I'm a minority in Syria, I'll pack my bags for Lebanon right now.
Assad may be nowhere to be seen, but has anyone found his chin?
The replacement will be much worse for the Christian population there.
If I remember correctly, Syria has an Air Force.
The utility of an AF also goes way down if it can’t hold its own air bases or keep its supply lines open.
Assad’s AF is useless if he’ll get overthrown tomorrow.
No chlorine gas bombs this time?
I’ve mentioned this before. A Muslim journalist embedded with several of the rebel groups explained it this way. One group wants to burn non-Muslims to death in cages. The other groups just want to kill them. Assad is probably the least bad alternative in an all-bad lineup.
Westerners mostly have a ridiculous good guy/ bad guy view of the world. We can’t seem to process the everybody-is-bad reality of the Middle East.
Trump tried to pull us out and the deep state lied to him and said we were out. We weren’t. Probably because someone over here is making lots of money off the suffering over there.
This is pretty interesting, from the leader of HTS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tLBPbEXScA
The question is, even if al-Jolani means what he says, will he have the leverage to pull it off, and will he survive to do it?
Uh-oh.
As we all know, this ain’t gonna end well.
I see the neocons have another war to flog. The Ukraine is about to surrender so the MIC starts another war.
You people are disgusting, cheering on Turkey and ISIS.
The world is ablaze thanks to Biden.
Dispersed irregular troops are a poor target for air attack. If they concentrate to attack fixed defenses that would be something else, as there will be an opportunity to call in close air support. But the rebels havent been doing that, depending on exploiting cases where the defenders morale breaks and they flee.
And who will stop ISIS at the Lebanon border?
IMHO, when it comes to the Middle East, there are two kinds of leaders: Bad and worse.
Assad falls into the “bad” category”, but the Rebels fall into the “worse” category. The minorities, including the Christians, better be ready to flee. Also, women better be worried about the coming Sharia Law.
Trump said, “ Not our problem.” He’s right.
There is no “flogging” this war. It is happening according to the will of others. There is no significant US input in this thing.
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