According to Reuters, the rebel forces in Syria state that they have begun to enter the capital on the night of Sunday. The news agency refers, among other things, to sources in two groups among the rebels. According to Reuters, there are no signs of the advance of government forces in the capital during the entry of the rebels who want to overthrow the president of the country. The rebels now claim to have released inmates from the large Sednaya military prison in the capital. President Bashar al-Assad is said to have left Damascus, according to sources in his regime. Photo: Omar Sanadiki / AP – We celebrate together with the Syrian people, the news that our prisoners have been freed, that their chains have been broken and that the end of injustice, their time in Sednaya prison is over, says a statement. The president out of the capital According to Reuters, two high-ranking Syrian officials say that President Bashar al-Assad has left Damascus. It is unknown where he is now seeking refuge. Bashar al-Assad has been president of Syria since the year 2000. AP Fights with the Assad regime The government forces Led by President Bashar Al-Assad, he belongs to a Shia Muslim minority that has been in power since the 1970s. Russia has supported by carrying out airstrikes against the rebels. In addition, they have supplied weapons to Assad and used their veto power in the UN Security Council to block sanctions against the regime. Iran has trained Assad’s forces and supported Hezbollah, which fights on the regime’s side. OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP / NTB Fighting against the Assad regime Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) HTS is a Sunni Muslim military group, founded in 2017, and consists of former Al Qaeda groups. The group has mainly had control in the north of the country, especially Idlib – region. Has made major advances in the last week, and taken over control of cities such as Aleppo and Hama. Approaching Homs. AFP Other actors against the Assad regime The Kurds and the USA There are approximately 2 million Kurds living in Syria. Kurdish groups, especially the YPG, have fought against the Islamic State (IS) and at the same time worked for self-government in their areas of the country. The USA has supported the Kurds in the fight against IS , which has created tension with NATO country Turkey. AP Other actors against the Assad regimeTurkeyTurkey believes that the Kurdish groups are associated with the PKK, a Turkish Kurdish separatist group that Turkey considers a terrorist organisation. Therefore, Turkey has carried out military attacks in northern Syria to weaken these groups. AFP Brief on the civil war in Syria Started in 2011 with protests as part of the Arab Spring. The protests were met with violence by the government forces of the president. Over 500,000 people have lost their lives, and thousands of children have lost their parents. Millions of people have fled to the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Germany took in around one million Syrian refugees during the refugee crisis in 2015. During the weekend, the rebel forces advanced south of the country, aiming for Damascus. On Saturday, several international media reported that the Syrian military had left the suburbs around Damascus. This applied, among other things, to the Mezzeh military airport, which lies between the capital and Deraa. Lightning offensive On 27 November, the jihadist group HTS and allied rebels launched a major offensive against government-controlled areas. The uprising came unexpectedly to the al-Assad regime, which led to the fall of Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo. In the days that followed, rebel forces took control of dozens of other towns and villages in the area. The rebels have spread south, and this week they took over the big city of Hama. The group largely controls parts of Idlib province and areas in Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. Published 08.12.2024, at 03.06 Updated 08.12.2024, at 04.07
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