Reports: Islamic Rebels Begin Encircling Syrian Capital Damascus as Assad Regime Forces Collapse
France24 TV: “Rebel forces said they are about 12 miles away from the Syrian capital Damascus as they continue a lightening offensive that has seen them seize control from government forces in multiple cities.”
Less than a week after their offensive, Islamist rebel forces are reportedly at the gate of Damascus and have begun encircling the Assad regime-controlled Syrian capital.
“Rebel forces said they are about 12 miles away from the Syrian capital Damascus as they continue a lightening offensive that has seen them seize control from government forces in multiple cities,” the Franc24 TV channel reported Saturday. “A Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) commander said rebels had begun to encircle the Syrian capital.”
HISTORIC: Hafez al-Assad statue toppled in Jaramana, just kilometers from Damascus. pic.twitter.com/P1zqNsetDW
— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 7, 2024
According to Iraqi official sources, forces loyal to the Assad regime were abandoning positions in the face of rapid rebel advance.”The soldiers from President Bashar al-Assad’s armed forces “have fled the front lines” and entered Iraq through the Al-Qaim border crossing, said one senior security official, adding that “the wounded have been hospitalised” in the area,” the French state broadcaster added.
Iran and Russia-backed Syria regime, which controlled two-thirds of the country, was rapidly losing hold over key cities and province less a week into the rebel offensive led by Turkey-backed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group.
“Since the rebels’ sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defences have crumbled across the country at dizzying speed as insurgents seized a string of major cities,” the Reuters reported Saturday. “Meanwhile the rebels extended their control to almost the entire southwest and said they had captured Sanamayn on the main highway from Damascus to Jordan.”
The Assad regime is crumbling.
Syrians in Damascus tear down a poster of the president. pic.twitter.com/dDtWsuWTKx
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) December 7, 2024
Iran pulls out IRGC operatives, pro-Assad troops flee to neighboring Iraq
Some Assad regime troops reportedly fled to neighboring Iraq amid rebel offensive. “Around 2,000 Syrian troops have crossed the border into Iraq and sought refuge, Turki Al-Mahlawi, the mayor of Al-Qaim border town [said],” the British newspaper Telegraph reported Saturday. “Some of the troops were wounded and are currently receiving medical treatment, he added.”
Iran, too, appears to be abandoning Assad, the tyrants it supported militarily since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. According to The New York Times, “Iran began to evacuate its military commanders and personnel from Syria on Friday, according to regional officials and three Iranian officials, in a sign of Iran’s inability to help keep President Bashar al-Assad in power as he faces a resurgent rebel offensive.”
Tehran was pulling out Islamic Guard (IRGC) terror operatives it had deployed to a direct terrorist campaign against Israel.
“Among those evacuated to neighboring Iraq and Lebanon were top commanders of Iran’s powerful Quds Forces, the external branch of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the officials said,” the NYT added.
Syrian military has given up: Soldiers in Damascus are abandoning their uniforms and changing to civilians clothespic.twitter.com/TCEwPX5Agv
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) December 7, 2024
Israel bolsters troops on border as rebels take areas in southern Syria
With Assad’s Syrian Arab Army was retreating from southern Syria, the Islamist forces were gaining ground in the area, bringing them closer to the border with Israel.
“The Syrian army withdrew from much of southern Syria on Saturday, leaving more areas of the country, including two provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters, the military and an opposition war monitor said,” the Associated Press reported. “The redeployment away from the provinces of Daraa and Sweida came as Syria’s military sent large numbers of reinforcements to defend the key central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as insurgents approached its outskirts.”
Amid Rebel advance, Israel was bolstering military presence along the border with Syria. “IDF deploying extra forces to Golan Heights as rebel forces make advances in Syria,” the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday.
IDF is not taking any chances with Syria!
The IDF announces it is strengthening forces along Israel’s border with Syria amid escalating developments in the Syrian civil war.
The decision follows assessments conducted by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Northern… pic.twitter.com/y7JwrkOm7Z
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) December 6, 2024
IDF assisting UN forces attacked in Syrian clashes across the border
The Israeli military is supporting UN troops stationed access to the border in Syria after they came under attack from armed gunmen amid ongoing clashes between Islamic rebels and pro-Assad forces, the IDF disclosed Saturday evening.
” A short while ago, an attack was carried out by armed individuals at a UN post in the Hader area in Syria,” the IDF said in statement press release. “The IDF is currently assisting the UN forces in repelling the attack.”
“The IDF is deployed with reinforced forces in the Golan Heights area and will continue to operate in order to protect the State of Israel and its citizens,” the military assured.
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Comments
One of two things:
a. Assad’s gone
b. Assad’s a goner
Can anybody arrange for both sides to lose?
.
All 5 sides
Aren’t these rebels likely to be another problem for Israel? Who funded them?
Turkey?
The enemy of my enemy is also a trailer park meth head.
Can’t be a good thing
CIA once again using Sunni extremists to topple a largely secular Middle East dictator. What could possibly go wrong?
We are so dumb.
This isn’t the CIA this is Turkey, they’ve admitted it
Lolz. My man, we’re providing close-air-support for SDF which means to a certainty we have FACs embedded with them; these are either US special forces or CIA black-ops (or both) . While HTS is largely backed (but not exclusively backed) by Turkey, we’ve been funding various Islamist rebel faction for roughly a decade.
Turkey and Erdogan in particular have long sought to reassert themselves in the Levant which they regard as within their sphere of interest. The Turks want to topple Assad in order to assert a neo hegemony and to eliminate the Kurds (Syrian variety). They ain’t motivated by altruism for the Syrian people. Yea and hoorah for NATO…..
The US has been on again/off again assisting the anti Assad Islamist forces. Not b/c we like them but to curry favor, build relationships and gain some influence. Especially now since they appear to be the winning team after Turkey made their own play for power. We don’t have clean hands or wear a white hat.
Looks like ‘old narrow head’ might have to flee to Tehran or Moscow.
He’s fluent in Russian, went to college in Russia (as at least one of his children have) and owns a home in Moscow. He sent his wife and young children there sometime last week. He’ll likely join them soon, presuming he makes it out alive.
He can go back to ophthalmology.
Moscow it is.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1865824213963014145
Don’t worry, they’re only decimating the Christians in Syria, just like they did years ago in Lebanon and Iran. Once they get rid of the Christians, the Middle East will be a (Islamic) paradise.
/sarc
Assad is terrible,,, But he kept things under control. Next comes anarchy.
If the rebels do take Damascus I expect to see various factions within to begin killing each other..
Begin? Intensify, escalate and expand would be more accurate.
Seems I am behind the curve..
CIA once again using Sunni extremists to topple a largely secular Middle East dictator. What could possibly go wrong?
The IDF announces it is strengthening forces along Israel’s border with Syria amid escalating developments in the Syrian civil war.
Russia has 12 border outposts along the Syria-Israel border in the Golan, how are they going to get out? I suppose Israel might allow them transit without weapons?
So….
Iran is not supporting the rebels, nor are China or Russia. This rebel army? Organization? Movement? must be receiving its arms and supplies from Turkey.
What does Turkey hope that the end position in Syria will be?
Surely there must be some plan for governing after toppling Assad, right?
Because there are so many dispirate parties involved in Syria – ethnic, tribal, religious – this is a SUPER complicated question, one that virtually no one in the mainstream media has any interest in addressing…also, one might ask what our ‘national interest’ is in this fight. Turkey’s interests are varied and complex. Turkey wants to stem the tide of Syrian refugees. They also want to continue to degrade their Kurdish foes. That’s their primary (but not only) short-term goals. Longer term objectives are a bit more ominous and driven by Erdoğan’s personal, warped ambition to usher in the new Turkish caliph. It’s terrifying.
The other players – there are roughly a dozen, with two or three major Islamist factions – have varying Jihadist goals, all looking to impose some form of their preferred idea of a perfect Sharia state. The only thing that unites them all is a burning desire to see Israel destroyed. Israel understands this. BUT, because these Sunni militias also hate Iran and the Russian interlopers, Israel is content to watch this play out believing – probably correctly – that the chaos hurts Iran’s ability to arm Hezbollah and inhibits any coordinated efforts to attack Israel, for now.
Very accurate summation!
Its only complicated if you don’t think of it in terms of Oil?
Does Syria have oil?
Yes?
Ok- its no longer complex.
So Libya on steroids?
For a lot of different reasons, yes. One thing no one in the western media has really talked about (perhaps because this is unfolding so quickly) is what’s going to happen to the stockpiles of Syrian weaponry, some of it likely biological & chemical in nature as well as potential stores of radiological material (not fissile, but the stuff you can make dirty bombs with)? Libya is a good analogy because Benghazi happened because CIA was running an OP to collect MANPADs that had disappeared during the collapse of the Qaddafi regime. Syria has WAY more ordnance of this nature than Libya ever had.
Yes very much but with more foreign powers meddling and each of them with multiple local and regional factions they back at any given time with varying levels of support depending on what the other powers are doing at the moment and what else is going in the Mid East and elsewhere. Got Turkey, USA, Iran, Russia, Israel with spoons in the pot and that’s just the varsity players.
IDF helping the UN soldiers. Ironic. Still, the UN can’t figure out who the good gurs are.
Pray for the Christians who remain in Syria. I’m afraid they’re going to need it.
Yeah. Assad was not a ‘good guy’ but he did more/less serve as their protector. When any mob gets wild in the streets with no central gov’t control or other form of restraint it gets ugly for any minority group quickly. I suspect the next few weeks at minimum will be harsh as old scores are settled and new ones created as an excuse.