The government of Syria has been violently overthrown by rebel forces but the new leaders aren’t going to be much better than the old one. President Bashar Assad and his family were chased out of Damascus overnight. The palace was looted bare as the former dictator jetted safely to Moscow. Fifty years of Assad’s “iron rule” was just replaced by “the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, which has its origins in al-Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.”
New government for Syria
The Syrian government, AP reports, “collapsed early Sunday, falling to a lightning rebel offensive that seized control of the capital of Damascus and sent crowds into the streets to celebrate.”
They do that by shooting guns in the air, producing more casualties in the celebration than those suffered in the military assault on the presidential palace.
Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying that President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been set free. They’ll be “a burning and a looting tonight.”
The anonymous government spokesperson who read the statement noted their “opposition group,” which he called “the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus,” urged “all rebel fighters and citizens” to refrain from looting and burning important infrastructure. Please “preserve the institutions of the free Syrian state,” he urged.
Word broke a few hours earlier that “Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location.” The transfer of Syrian government power wasn’t a peaceful one. Once he was safely on the ground, Russia reported that they have him stashed in Moscow.
Assad and his family fled just ahead of murderous insurgents who “had entered Damascus following a remarkably swift advance across the country.” One town after another has been falling like dominoes.
Residents in disbelief
Half the citizens of Damascus are stunned over “the speed at which Assad lost his hold on the country.” Their civil war’s been raging for nearly 14 years. Nothing has changed except the Ayatollah’s been missing in action since Donald Trump was elected.
After hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and half the population “displaced,” it’s suddenly over and they have a new government.
As daylight broke the devout Arabs “gathered to pray in the city’s mosques and to celebrate in the squares.” Besides chanting “God is great,” people “also chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns.”
Especially festive teen boys “picked up weapons that had apparently been discarded by security forces and fired them in the air.” Including a rocket launcher or two. Overthrowing their government was a lot more interesting than anything they have access to on TV.
Men fired celebratory gunshots into the air as “revelers filled Umayyad Square in the city center, where the Defense Ministry is located.” Some residents pulled out their tattered and moth-eaten three-starred Syrian flag.
Those were locked away in trunks since the Assad government took over. As soon as the howling mob of freedom fighters entered the city of Damascus, “soldiers and police officers left their posts and fled.” They weren’t about to stick around as “looters broke into the Defense Ministry.” They’re carrying stacks of plates from the presidential palace.
