More than 13 years after they began their struggle to topple President Bashar al-Assad, Syrians finally saw the end of his ruthless rule as rebels entered Damascus on 8 December, closing the chapter on the 53-year reign of the house of Assad over Syria. Broken by years of war and sanctions, people took to the streets in celebration, flocking through abandoned palaces to witness the extravagance in which Baath Party elites lived. Others rushed into prisons searching for loved ones not heard from in years.
Events over the past two weeks were nothing short of dramatic. Assad’s army ran out of reasons to fight, vanishing into thin air in the face of a fast-paced advance by opposition forces. Iran and Russia, the two powers that had kept Assad in power during the country’s bloody civil war, overstretched by conflicts, abandoned the dictator who fled to Moscow. (CONTINUED - 2502 WORDS)
