Why Assad fell so fast

The end was “as stunning as it was swift”, said Rania Abouzeid in The New Yorker. Less than a fortnight after launching a lightning strike from its stronghold in northern Syria, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) this week succeeded in ending the 24-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

The regime had pledged to defend the capital, Damascus, with a “ring of steel”; but in the event, the rebels’ rapid southward advance met little resistance. Regime soldiers abandoned their posts, leaving uniforms and equipment strewn in the street, as Assad and his family fled the country.

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