As Islamist rebels seize control of Syria, Bashar Assad escapes into exile.

Damascus was stormed by rebels, resulting in the departure of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who had previously used chemical weapons against his population, according to Reuters.

Assad, who was trained as an eye doctor in the UK and succeeded his father, and his British-born wife, Asma al-Assad, along with their three children, fled Syria, according to Syrian television reports. The destination of their escape was unknown.

The ongoing 13-year civil war in Syria, which has resulted in a significant loss of life, has been fueled by Islamist rebels' efforts to overthrow the Assad dynasty. The collapse of more than 50 years of Assad family rule over the Syrian Arabian Republic would represent a monumental turning point in Middle East power politics.

The Iran-backed regime of Assad was overthrown by a coalition of radical Islamist groups, with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a U.S.-designated terrorist group and former Al-Qaeda affiliate, playing the decisive role in evicting Assad, who inherited his presidency in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez Assad.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the Islamist leader of HTS, who has a $10 million bounty on his head from the U.S., seeks to present a more moderate version of the radical Islamism that has characterized his years of fighting in Syria and in Iraq against American troops. Al-Golani was captured by the U.S. military in the early 21st century.

According to Phillip Smyth, an expert on Iranian regime proxy groups and Syria, who is with the Atlantic Council, HTS is a group that is an outgrowth of Al-Qaeda and has connections to Turkey. Their endgame is to create a Talibanesque society with a few tweaks.

The ongoing civil war in Syria, which began in 2011 when Assad launched a violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists during the Arab Spring revolts, resulted in the deaths of over 500,000 people. The UN has stopped tracking the mounting death toll.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Egyptian and Jordanian officials urged Assad to leave Syria and establish a government-in-exile. However, Jordan's government refuted the claim.

In 2015, Assad's regime was on the brink of collapse when Russia intervened to preserve the dictatorship. Hezbollah, a U.S.-sanctioned Lebanese terrorist movement supported by Iran, backed Assad's regime.

The rebel forces who captured major Syrian cities such as Aleppo, Hamas, and Homs have surprised both Putin and Iran. Ukraine's resistance to Russia's invasion has weakened Moscow. Israel has launched aerial attacks on Iran's military infrastructure since Hamas launched a surprise attack on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.

In 2015, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2254, which proposed a cease-fire, UN-administered elections, and a new constitution. However, Assad refused to implement the resolution.

In 2013, when Assad launched a deadly chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians, killing over 1,400 people, Obama's administration broke its promise to militarily intervene against Assad.

The cause of Assad's exile can be traced back to a group of schoolboys in the southwestern dusty city of Daraa, where the Syrian revolution began in 2011. The young boys used cans of graffiti to write on a concrete wall: "The people / want / to topple the regime!"

The reported torture of the 15 boys between the ages of 10 and 15 was overseen by Gen. Atef Najeeb, who is Assad's cousin. Syrian officials allegedly ripped the boy's fingernails out and burned and beat them.