Who controls the country now Assad has gone?

In simply two weeks, Syrian rebels have swept from their enclave within the north west to seize a string of main cities, earlier than reaching the capital Damascus and toppling President Bashar al-Assad, 13 years after the beginning of the nation’s civil struggle.

In convoys of small automobiles and motorbikes, fighters led by the insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) moved quickly alongside the north-south freeway which kinds the nation’s major backbone to take Damascus with out resistance.

However whereas many within the nation are celebrating the downfall of a household dynasty that dominated Syria with an iron fist, the longer term is unsure and the state of affairs on the bottom stays in flux, with a variety of totally different insurgent teams controlling totally different components of the nation.

The autumn of the Assad regime was led to by the sudden and surprising advance by HTS rebels however, though the group controls Syria’s major cities, it doesn’t govern the entire nation.

Syria has for years been managed by a patchwork of insurgent teams together with HTS in Idlib and Kurdish-led teams within the nation’s north east, a few of which have additionally taken territory in latest days and weeks.

Not one of the insurgent teams will mourn the falling of the Assad regime, however discovering a consensus over how you can run the nation may nonetheless show troublesome and within the north of the nation there have been clashes between competing factions.

After years locked behind frozen frontlines, the rebels mounted a lightning advance, culminating within the toppling of the president and takeover of the capital on the weekend.

After taking Syria’s second metropolis Aleppo on the finish of November, the rebels continued their offensive, shifting south to take management of town of Hama final Thursday.

The advance continued at tempo, and on Saturday the rebels swept by means of Syria’s third metropolis, Homs, going through little resistance and pushed straight on to the capital Damascus.

By Monday morning, it was confirmed that President Assad had fled the nation, with Russian information sources reporting he had been given asylum in Russia.

Syria, with a inhabitants of about 22 million folks, is situated on the east coast of the Mediterranean sea. It borders Turkey to the north, Lebanon and Israel to the west and south west, Iraq to the east and Jordan to the south.

Turkey, Western powers and a number of other Gulf Arab states have backed various parts of the Syrian opposition to various levels throughout the battle.

The Lebanon-based Hezbollah motion, backed by Iran, has fought alongside the Syrian regime military however has been severely weakened by its battle with Israel. This has been seen as a key motive why the insurgent advance was so profitable.

Israel, involved by what it calls Iran’s “navy entrenchment” in Syria, has launched air strikes towards Syria’s navy.

Israeli warplanes have reportedly been finishing up a whole lot of airstrikes throughout Syria, focusing on Syrian Military navy amenities, together with weapon warehouses, ammunition depots, airports, naval bases and analysis centres.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says it has documented greater than 350 strikes by Israel for the reason that fall of the Assad regime on Sunday, together with on the capital, Damascus, Aleppo and Hama.

The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) claims it has destroyed round 80% of the Assad regime’s navy functionality, although that determine has not been independently verified.

Israel says its actions are to stop weapons falling “into the arms of extremists” as Syria transitions right into a post-Assad period.

Israel additionally says it has temporarily seized control of a demilitarized buffer zone within the Golan Heights, saying the 1974 disengagement settlement with Syria had “collapsed” with the insurgent takeover of the nation.

The Golan Heights is a rocky plateau about 60km (40 miles) south-west of Damascus.

Israel seized the territory from Syria within the closing phases of the 1967 Six-Day Conflict and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. The transfer was not recognised internationally, though the US did so unilaterally in 2019.

Within the northern metropolis of Manbij there have been clashes between Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish-led rebels.

Each side claimed to have taken components of town and preventing is reported to be ongoing in some neighbourhoods.

The Euphrates river acts as a dividing line between the territory managed by the Turkish-backed teams within the west and the Kurdish-led forces within the east.

In 2015, Russia despatched hundreds of troops to Syria to assist maintain President Assad in energy.

In return for this navy help, Russia was given 49-year leases on two key navy bases.

The port at Tartous is Russia’s solely main abroad naval base and likewise its solely naval base within the Mediterranean.

Together with the air base at Hmeimim, which is usually used to fly Russia’s navy contractors out and in of Africa, the 2 bases play an essential function in Russia’s capacity to function as a world energy.

The Kremlin has mentioned it can maintain discussions with Syria’s new administration on the way forward for each websites.

Within the meantime, Russian ships have left the port and are anchored simply off the coast.