Good morning. Today, we explain the dramatic end of the Assad regime in Syria. We're also covering Notre-Dame, the Trump administration and dairy farming.
Damascus has fallenPresident Bashar al-Assad's long and brutal reign in Syria has ended. After 13 years of civil war, Syria's rebel fighters have stormed the capital, Damascus, and claimed victory. The government's forces fled without significant resistance as rebel fighters poured into the city. Assad resigned and left Syria, Russia said, but his location could not be confirmed. The rebels appear to have taken over the state television, and they announced Syria to be "free of the tyrant." The country's prime minister, who remains in Damascus, said he would work on a transition government. The rebels called on their forces to stay away from public institutions until they could be formally handed over. The rebels said they are now continuing their advance into the east. Below, we explain what has happened and what may come next. What we know
The rebels' rapid advance over the past two weeks was a dramatic end to a yearslong stalemate. (Read The Morning's explanation of the war.) Until recently, a coalition of rebel groups had been stuck, pinned into a corner of Syria's northwest. Then they blazed through the country and took its major cities, including Aleppo, Hama and Homs. They freed people inside many of the Assad regime's prisons, where he had for decades tortured and executed political prisoners. This weekend, the rebels poured into Damascus. As rebels entered the city, Syrian government troops reportedly peeled off their uniforms and fled their posts. Gunfire sounded in the city overnight as the rebels celebrated, witnesses said. People left their homes to join them. Residents stomped burning images of Assad and attempted to topple a statue of his father. (The Assad family has ruled Syria for five decades.) They were unsuccessful in taking down the statue, but left a trash can on its head. As some celebrated, others mourned all they had lost during years of war. "No one should shed any tears over the end of the Assad regime," Daniel Shapiro, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said. What comes nextIt's unclear how the rebels' victory could reshape the Middle East. Syria's neighbors are bracing for instability. Israel's military said it had entered a demilitarized buffer zone in territory it controls next to Syria. Iraq has secured its border with Syria, according to the official Iraqi News Agency. The collapse of the Assad family's long rule could create a dangerous vacuum, The Wall Street Journal reports, and outside powers may maneuver for influence. Assad contained rebel forces for more than a decade with Iranian and Russian backing. But in recent days, Iran and Russia withheld significant military support. The rebels' victory could cause some of the millions of Syrian refugees who fled during the past decade to return home. It's also unclear who may govern Syria — or what that rule could look like. The leading rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Muslim organization once affiliated with Al Qaeda. It has since renounced Al Qaeda, but the U.S. government classifies it as a terrorist group. Inside the country, Syria's foreign ministry has issued a statement that appears to hail the shifting balance of power: "A new page in Syrian history is being written." For more
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