The fall of the regime of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad only further complicated an already complicated situation Middle East. Although many believe that the situation in the region could calm down precisely because of this, there are also those who fear the fact that the forces that have taken power in Syria are too extreme for peace with them to be possible.
The groups that took power
The offensive of the coalition of opposition fighters "Operation Deterrent Aggression" that led to the fall of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was launched on November 27.
The offensive was led by several armed Syrian opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which translates as the Levant Liberation Organization, and supported by allied factions backed by Turkey.
HTS is the largest and most organized movement and ruled the Idlib area for years before this offensive. The group is considered a branch of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and many countries designate it as a terrorist organization.
Other groups involved in the operation were the National Liberation Front, Ahrar al-Sham, Yaish al-Izza and the Nur al-Din al-Zenki Movement, as well as Turkish-backed factions under the umbrella of the Syrian National Army.
Rebel leader
The leader of the rebels is Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, which is a pseudonym, and there is no reliable information about his real name and year of birth.
Al-Jawlani told the US television network PBS that he was born Ahmed al-Shara and is a Syrian whose family comes from the Golan Heights, an area on the border between Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.
He said he was born in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, where his father was working at the time, and grew up in Damascus, the capital of Syria.
However, there are also reports that he was born in Deir ez-Zor, in eastern Syria, and there are also allegations that he studied medicine before becoming an Islamist militant.
According to United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) reports, he was born between 1975 and 1979, Interpol says he was born in 1979, and according to a report by the Lebanese newspaper As Safir, he was born in 1981.
Where is Assad and what led to his fall
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus for Moscow, dramatically ending his nearly 14-year struggle to hold on to power in Syria, which has been torn apart by a brutal civil war.
Assad's departure is in stark contrast to his first months as Syria's president in 2000, which he was not initially expected to do, when many hoped he would be a young reformer after three decades of iron rule by his father, Hafez.
Assad came to power in 2000 by a play of fate. His father raised Bashar's eldest brother, Basil, as his heir, but in 1994, Basil was killed in a car accident in Damascus.
Bashar was sent back to the country, abandoning his ophthalmology practice in London, and upon his return he underwent military training and was given the rank of colonel to strengthen his position so that he could one day rule.
When Hafez Assad died in 2000, parliament quickly lowered the presidential age from 40 to 34.
At just 34, Asad, a Western-educated ophthalmologist, came across as "a nerdy, tech-savvy computer lover with a gentle demeanor."
At first, Assad seemed completely different from his strong and unscrupulous father. Tall and thin, he was quiet and withdrawn.
His only official position before becoming president was head of the Syrian Computer Society.
His wife, Asma al-Ahras, whom he married a few months after taking office, a Syrian-born former investment banker who grew up in London, helped burnish that image.
The young couple, who had three children, seemed to avoid the trappings of power. They lived in an apartment in the luxurious Abu Rumane district of Damascus, unlike the lavish mansions of other Arab leaders.
Initially upon taking office, Assad released political prisoners and allowed more open discourse.
However, faced with protests against his rule that erupted in March 2011, Assad turned to his father's brutal tactics in an attempt to crush them.
As the uprising escalated into open civil war, he deployed the military, ravaging opposition-held cities, with the support of allies Iran and Russia.
International human rights groups have pointed to the widespread use of torture and random extrajudicial killings in detention centers controlled by the Syrian authorities.
What does Turkey say?
In recent years, moderate Arab regimes, with the tacit support of Israel and the US, have tried to bring Assad back into their fold, and to "normalize" him as just another despot. They also tried to separate him from his Iranian sponsors.
Among those countries was Turkey, which wanted to make an agreement with Assad on the easing of sanctions, because there are more than three million Syrian refugees on its territory.
The talks have stalled over Assad's refusal to grant Ankara a wide buffer zone inside Syria to keep Kurdish militants at bay. Instead, Assad continued attacks on the rebel-held city of Idlib, prompting thousands of new refugees to seek refuge near the Turkish border.
Turkey's apparent approval of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham attack suggests that Turkey's patience with Assad has run out.
What does Russia say?
After several unverified information and speculations, on Sunday evening the Russian media announced that Assad had arrived in Moscow with his family, and that he had been granted asylum.
It was previously reported from Russia that Assad left office and the country after negotiations with "other participants in the armed conflict" and gave instructions for a peaceful transfer of power.
In the statement of the Russian Ministry of Affairs, it was stated that Russia was not involved in those negotiations and that its military bases in Syria are on alert, but not threatened.
Moscow stated that it was in contact with "all groups in the Syrian opposition, which guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria."
What does Israel say?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assessed that Assad's fall is a historic day for the Middle East.
"The Assad regime is the central link in Iran's axis of evil - this regime has fallen," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu pointed out that this was a direct result of the strikes that Israel inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, the main supporters of the Assad regime.
"This has created a chain reaction throughout the Middle East for all those who want to be freed from this oppressive and tyrannical regime," Netanyahu said, adding that Israel acts primarily to protect its borders.
The Israeli army announced that it would not intervene in the events in Syria, but it was also announced that Israeli soldiers were deployed in the buffer zone monitored by the UN and in several places that are necessary for defense.
A fight on four fronts
DW reports that Israel is fighting on four fronts.
"The ground troops are fighting on four fronts: against terrorism in Judea and Samaria, in the Gaza Strip, in Lebanon, and last night we transferred troops to the territory of Syria," Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told Regruti on Sunday evening.
Judea and Samaria are the Israeli names for the West Bank, which is occupied in violation of international law.
Israel, however, emphasized that the army will not interfere in internal events in Syria.
Earlier, Israel moved its forces, including tanks, to a buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights. Troops are positioned "in the buffer zone and in several other locations necessary for defense," including on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
What next?
Political analysts believe that the goal of Assad's fall is to create an interim government under the influence of the US and Turkey, while others speculate about a possible political agreement between Russia and the US, which could also include solutions for Ukraine.
In addition, some believe that the pro-Iranian militias will not just withdraw and that Syria could enter a new phase of the conflict, similar to the initial years of the civil war, but with a completely changed balance of power.
Source: Al Jazeera/Radio Free Europe/BBC/Reuters/AP
