The Syrian Rebellion: Who Are the Big Losers?
Ted Snider
https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Snider/2024/12/10/the-syrian-rebellion-who-are-the-big-losers/

After an inconceivably fast twelve day march through Syria by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is in exile in Moscow, his government has fallen, the more than five decade’s long Ba’ath rule of Syria is over and a group descended from Al-Qaeda is in control of Syria. The Assad regime only survived as long as it did because of Hezbollah ground support, Russian air support and significant Iranian assistance in the first round of the Syrian rebellion over a decade ago. This time, none of that was available … The surprisingly rapid advance of the rebels was the result “more of a political collapse,” [Prof. Stephen] Zunes told me, “than a military victory.” In the end, Assad fell, not because Iran and Russia didn’t support him, but because the Syrian military and people didn’t support him.

Israel Strikes Syria 480 Times and Seizes Territory as Netanyahu Pledges to Change Face of the Middle East
CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/10/middleeast/israel-syria-assad-strikes-intl/index.html

The collapse of the Assad regime has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes at military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years. The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had carried out about 480 strikes across the country over the past two days, hitting most of Syria’s strategic weapon stockpiles, while Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli navy had destroyed the Syrian fleet overnight, hailing the operation as “a great success.” Just a day earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had hailed the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime as “a new and dramatic chapter.” “The collapse of the Syrian regime is a direct result of the severe blows with which we have struck Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” he said …