Trump Claims Bashar al-Assad Fled Syria After Losing Russia's Support
In a recent post on his Truth Social platform, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump asserted that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "fled" Syria after losing the support of his longtime backer, Russia. Trump stated, "Assad is no longer in Syria. He fled his country. His protector, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, no longer wanted to protect him."
Trump argued that Russia had lost interest in Syria due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has resulted in the injury or death of nearly 600,000 Russian soldiers in a war that, according to Trump, should never have been started and could last indefinitely. He further commented, "Russia and Iran are currently weakened—Russia by Ukraine and its struggling economy, and Iran by Israel and its successful military campaigns."
In a significant development, rebels led by radical Islamist factions announced on Syrian state television the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the "liberation" of the Syrian capital, Damascus, after a rapid offensive that ended more than fifty years of Assad family rule. The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahmane, confirmed that Assad had fled Syria through Damascus International Airport before military and security personnel withdrew from the site.
Bashar al-Assad, with military backing from Russia, Iran, and the Hezbollah movement, had managed to regain control over much of Syria after 2015, including the full capture of Aleppo in 2016, a city that had been partially under rebel control since 2012.
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