Slightly more significant, Syrian PM Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali appears to have temporarily been placed in charge of things.

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— OSINTtechnical (@osinttechnical.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 03:52

Syrian rebels have requested that no one in Damascus fire in the air in celebration.

— OSINTtechnical (@osinttechnical.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 03:52

You don’t have to reply to every post about Syria with doomerism.

Syrians and those of us who have been activists on their behalf for many years are well aware of the uncertainty of the future.

People are on it, trust me.

Let people celebrate the end of Assad’s reign of terror for a day or two.

— Leah McElrath (@leahmcelrath.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 05:58

"My coworker from Syria is ecstatic. One of the kindest, most generous and hard working people I know. He's been waiting so long for this day. Says he has family scattered all over the world. Warms my heart to see him like this. Idk what happens next but I'm hopeful and I'm just happy for him."

"As a Syrian, this is one of the happiest days of my and my whole families lives. We have been oppressed for 50+ years. I don't think people understand just how horrific the Assad family was, people were scared to speak in their own houses "The walls have ears". The most horrendous torture, killings, kidnappings, etc. I accepted I would never again see my homeland, now there is hope. May Allah keep Syria safe and whoever comes next, I hope they try their best and stick to what they are saying."

Saw those two comment above on ResetEra from a Syrian and someone who knows a Syrian.

Today is a day of celebration, a brutal dictator and Putin ally has fallen, seeing the elation on Syrians faces is beautiful. Nobody knows what comes after, I hope it's an improvement but Syrians have overthrown their oppressor and they have a better chance to improve things now, I think we should give them a chance, it's a better chance than being under the combined boot of Assad and Putin.

For today, one less evil bastard controlling the world.

Syrian army never really even tried to hold their positions (and they had hundreds of them) so I guess many of them were also tired of all this. You don't just lose your fortified positions after 10 minutes to some rebels on motorbikes. We could also read about town after town to have an agreement with the rebels to hand the place over to them.

It wouldn't surprise me if some of Assad's regime changed fronts so that this was so easy for the rebels in most towns.

In 2017: "If the terrorists raise their heads again," the Russian army from the bases in Tartus and Hmeimim "will deal them blows they have never seen before."

🤷‍♂️

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 10:33

Would you look at that, even more empty words, I wonder where the nuke threats are for these rebels.

And people said America's sloppy Afghanistan withdrawal was bad, it was, but this was way more pathetic.

In Hama, a Syria TV journalist symbolically takes off his bulletproof 'press' vest to signal that the war is over. Everywhere people are celebrating.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 10:15

🇸🇾 In Syria, residents of Tartous and Latakia are toppling statues of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled for 30 years and was Bashar al-Assad's father. It is probably a matter of hours before HTS-led rebel forces enter here too.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 09:58

As of now, only a small part on the western coast near Latakia and Tartous hasn't turned rebel green yet. But this is likely to happen within 24-48 hours. I wonder what the Russians have left in Tartous.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 09:52

The Iranian embassy in Damascus was seized and destroyed. A poster of Qasem Soleimani and Ayatollah Khomenei was torn apart.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 09:33

This is how Syrian State Television responded to the ongoing events: "Victory of the great Syrian revolution And overthrow the criminal Assad regime"

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 09:21

❗️ Under U.S. pressure, Ukraine is considering lowering the draft age to 18, reports WP. Some activists suggest drafting women first, while lawmakers propose a compromise of lowering the age to 20 instead, Washington Post writes.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 10:35

Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security Advisor, says Abrams tanks have proven less useful for Ukraine.

"We sent Abrams tanks to Ukraine. These tanks are not actually being used by the units because it is not the most useful piece of equipment for them," he said.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Z3...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 10:42

🇺🇸 The U.S. has trained a limited number of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s due to a shortage of available pilots in Ukraine, says White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. He stated this has delayed Ukraine's ability to fully operationalize the F-16 program.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Z3...

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 10:27

Give them more Bradleys instead if Abrams sucks (although you only sent 31). I don't like Sullivan though, everything he says feels like an excuse, I don't buy that they can't find more pilots or put more pilots through flight school, even if it would take 2 years it's better to start as soon as possible, which is exactly what France is doing.

Also, Ukraine can lower the conscription age but with what equipment? I think Zelenskyy told us that only like 4 out of the promised 14 brigades have been fully equipped due to insufficient supply from allies, so you'll just be sending all these young people to trench warfare instead with just a gun and Ukraine loses the backbone of its society.

The statue of Hafez Al-Assad is being dragged through the streets and the people celebrate. This is said to be the coast of Syria, possibly Latakia or Tartous. Rebels factions are also on their way to the Syrian coast.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 09:18

Assad has fallen.

Overnight, a lot happened. Homs was captured by rebel forces, but most important: the capital Damascus has been captured and Bashar Al-Assad has fled. Everywhere, Syrians took out on the streets.

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— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.com) 8 December 2024 at 09:08

Yeah, the Syria situation was reminding me of that as well, with the government just collapsing in the space of a week without even appearing to put up a fight.

I reckon though the aftermath is going to be more akin to Libya though, where various disparate rebel groups hold different areas of the country and being unwilling to reunify the country so the country essentially fractures. The Kurds, for instance, aren’t going to give up their de facto independence and at the same time Turkey isn’t going to pull out to allow and the Kurds on its border. The inly remnants of the Asaad regime seems to persist at present in the costal cities so yet to see what happens there.

I do wonder though, US apparently has 900 troops in the south-east of Syria near the Iraqi border (if you look at the wikipedia map its the area in light green). The US government has said this is to guard against Isis returning. Trump has been on social media to say the US should stay out of it and there is seemingly no mention of these troops getting involve in these recent events. Will Trump pull them out entirely?

Yeah, even then America's pull out was intentional, Russia's wasn't, even as recent as yesterday, Russia was bombing HTS positions but they simply do not have the manpower anymore, unlike America where it was intentionally leaving Afghanistan through more of a political decision than a manpower one, Russia just simply couldn't defend Syria anymore which is what makes this more embarrassing.

As far as I'm aware; HTS, SOR and SFA are allies so hopefully they can unite and form a truce with the SDF but Türkiye to this day continues to bomb the SDF and are using SNA to attack SDF positions right now. HTS/SOT/SFA are largely staying out of the way of SNA + Türkiye vs SDF which I hope continues to be the case and Türkiye doesn't drag everyone else into it.

The coastal cities are complicated but also home to a significant portion of Alawites which Assad has been telling for years that if these people take over, the Alawites will be slaughtered, it'll be a delicate situation to navigate which is why HTS has been blasting the airwaves about how they respect the Alawites and calling them honourable and by their proper name, I'm kind of surprised to see the coastal cities protesting against Assad and topping his statues for the reason that I thought they'd be more scared of factions like HTS.

If HTS sticks to their word of moderation then I hope we give them the support to disband the rebel forces and form a proper government.

Yeah this "there are just not enough who can operate a jet, air defense system or weapon xy" is such a stupid argument. It takes like 1.5 - 2 years for someone who never flew to be a pilot in the air force. But they act as if only those who are already pilots can be trained.