What's happening in Syria, mapped

0:01 in Syria the Assad regime has fallen hez al- Assad took power in 1971 and ruled Syria with an iron fist then his son Bashar took over and survived a decades long Civil War in part by using poison gas and Barrel bombs to kill thousands of his own citizens just 11 days ago he controlled pieces of a failed State then suddenly Rebels launched a surprise attack in Aleppo a few days later they took Hama then holes then late Saturday as they closed in on the capital Damascus Assad fled it's an historic moment syrians have endured Decades of depression under Assad and millions have lived abroad in poverty as refugees but Syria is still in Jeopardy so how did the Assad regime collapse so quickly and what comes next

1:02 the Sha neighborhood of Aleppo under heavy government fire the Syrian Civil War has raged since protesters rose up against Assad in 2011 but by 2020 it had become a so-called Frozen conflict five main groups had emerged but fighting between them had died down a coalition of anti-government rebels controlled a pocket of territory in the north and parts of the South above them militias backed by turkey and to the east Kurdish l militias in the southeast East remnants of the terrorist group Isis remained but otherwise Assad's government controlled the rest at least in name in reality he was completely reliant on two allies at the height of the Civil War Iran had directed several militias to fight for Assad the most powerful Hezbollah remained in Syria to protect

1:48 him Russia helped too by conducting air strikes on the rebels and maintaining several military bases Assad did have an army but let it grow corrupt and weak without Iran and Russia he had little to keep him in power and in 2023 an event would start a chain reaction that would lead to his downfall on October 7th an Iranian back militia Hamas attacked Israel Israel responded not only against Hamas but also against Iranian back militias in Syria Hezbollah and even Iran itself weakening the whole network they could no longer protect Assad and Russia was distracted too having committed most of its military to its invasion of Ukraine this gave the rebels in Syria an opportunity to test Assad's forces in [Music]

2:34 Aleppo celebrating their Victory Rebel Fighters are in the streets of Aleppo the Syrian governments clearly abandoned both weapons and ammunition in a hurry on the move at PACE lightning Advance poses the biggest challenge to president Assad in many years as Rebels race towards Damascus neither Russia nor Iran were eager to get involved Assad was on his own and his troops knew it here here some of them reportedly changing out of their military uniforms and fleeing as his army melted away Assad went to the airport where he and his family boarded a plane and fled to Moscow ending one of the most oppressive regimes in the world now several different groups want to replace him so when this story broke obviously there was a deluge of news and

3:20 it was quite a challenge trying to separate the noise luckily I was able to stay organized for this story thanks to my ground News subscription ground news is a website and an app that Gathers news from all over the world and puts it in one place it then gives me a clear way to navigate how every story is being told like this story about the collapse of the Assad regime because of today's sponsor ground news I'm able to see that almost a thousand news outlets reported on the story with nearly even reporting across the political Spectrum I could then filter the news outlets I wanted to read by political bias recency location even government affiliation in this case I was really interested to see stories rated with a very high factuality ground news even uses these same tags for each story and headline so that you have all the details on hand I also love this interactive map feature that lets me explore news from all over the world ground news has become my first stop during breaking news and I know if

4:06 you're a fan of search party this is the kind of thing you're looking for so we've sponsored with ground news to offer you 50% off their advantage plan at the link ground. news/ search party you can find more info in the description or by scanning this QR code this is the biggest discount they've ever offered so I really recommend you giving ground news a shot right now it's great for anyone who wants a more clear understanding of what's happening in the world search party and ground news share the same Mission that's to make this news more transparent more understandable thanks again to ground news for supporting our work I'll get you back to the story now this is Abu Muhammad Al jalani arriving in Damascus on Sunday he leads hayatt tarir al-sham the rebel group that led the uprising and who are in the best position to take power the biggest question is who are they when Syria civil war started galani

4:52 helped form a group called jabat nusra they were islamist extremists who aimed to turn Syria into an islamist halit galani initially allied with other extremist groups Al-Qaeda and its Ally Isis then in 2016 he formed a new group which he claimed was not connected to Al-Qaeda a year later he merged with other allegedly moderate groups to form HTS today it calls itself an independent entity that follows no organization or party Al-Qaeda or others but the US regards it as a foreign terrorist organization that maintains contact with Al-Qaeda leadership a week ago CNN asked Jelani in this interview what group stood for what is HTS right now is one of the factions in the region now we're talking about a larger project

5:38 we're talking about building Syria no one has the right to erase another group there must be a legal framework that protects and ensures the rights of all he said publicly he wants to protect Syria minorities like Christians and Kurds but even if gelani controls the capital he'll have a hard time controlling the whole country in the north a coalition of Rebel groups called the Syrian National Army have different ideologies some are aligned with turkey's government While others still want to establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law Additionally the Kurdish Le groups in the north won't want to give up their autonomy the Kurds are an ethnic group that suffered for decades under Syria's government and value their territory as a safe haven

6:24 many alawites another sect supported Assad and may not accept rule by the rebels and Isis could take advantage of the chaos to try and regain strength elements of Assad's regime also remain but some appear to be open-minded his former prime minister says he's ready to hand over the government to Rebels and work with them to form a new one as these groups jockey for power they will also have to deal with influence from Outsiders turkey gains the most from Assad's downfall it's hosting over 3 million Syrian refugees and a friendly Syria will allow it to send them home in addition the militia's turkey backs will give it influence and are more free to attack the Kurdish groups which turkey considers terrorists even as Assad fled

7:11 reports emerged of Turkish back militias attacking Kurdish towns but it's Iran that has lost the most without Assad it can't count on Syria to be a buffer between it and Israel and it's cut off from its most important Ally Hezbollah other countries are more wait and see if we can establish and a peaceful relations with with the new forces emerging in Syria that's our desire but if we do not we'll do whatever it takes to defend the state of Israel Israel's deployed troops in southern Syria and claims to have used air strikes to hit weapons facilities it opposed Assad but will not want an islamist regime that's even more hostile to replace him neither will these Arab states who may worry that the success of Syria's Rebels May Inspire revolts in their own countries ultimately though none of them want Syria to descend into

7:58 another bloody Civil War zooming out further Russia has lost a key Ally in the Middle East and may lose its military bases in Syria the United States also has a base which it uses to fight Isis on Sunday President Joe Biden outlined a blueprint for us support in Syria but incoming president Donald Trump stated that the US should quote have nothing to do with Syria and that it should let it play [Music] out the next Syria is just beginning to take shape peaceful coordination between these groups and foreign powers will be an immense challenge but for now now syrians across the country are in the streets celebrating the simple fact that they have the opportunity at [Music] all all right thanks for watching if you haven't subscribed yet to search party we cover geopolitics we cover Sports uh

8:43 now's your chance subscribe now uh we moved the schedule around a little bit to make room for this video so next week we'll be back with our Sports story that should be the last one of the year and then we'll be back in January special thanks to my team for working super hard to get this out really really quickly uh hope you liked it and we'll see you in a couple weeks all right