The Fall of Assad's Regime and His Escape from Damascus After His Forces Collapse Against the Opposition

After more than 13 years of a devastating civil war that caused massive destruction and displaced millions, Syrian opposition factions announced the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime and his escape from Damascus. This came after a surprise offensive that led to the rapid collapse of his forces in strategic areas, including Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and finally the capital, Damascus, marking a significant turning point in Syria's political and military landscape.

Bashar al-Assad, who assumed power in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, experienced major shifts in his political career. After his brother Bassel's death in a car accident in 1994, he returned from London, where he was studying ophthalmology, and later married Asma al-Assad, a British citizen working in finance. Despite initially promising reforms, those efforts were quickly abandoned. With the onset of popular protests in 2011, Assad chose violent repression, turning demonstrations into a devastating war that claimed the lives of over 500,000 people and displaced millions of Syrians.

In late November, opposition factions escalated their attacks, prompting Assad to accuse these movements of aiming to divide Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Assad fled Damascus at dawn on a plane heading to a Russian military base in Syria, just hours before opposition forces reached the capital, signaling the end of his more than two-decade rule.