NN Online:
Since the fall of Syria’s long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad, the political and military landscape has undergone a dramatic shift. The majority of the country is now under the control of rebel forces.
Following the rebels’ victory, Israeli forces entered Syria’s Golan Heights on Sunday, according to Syrian media sources, reports Times of Israel.
Earlier, Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying that President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been set free.
The man who read the statement said the opposition group, known as the Operations Room to Conquer Damascus, called on all rebel fighters and citizens to preserve the institutions of “the free Syrian state.”
The statement emerged hours after the head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus following a remarkably swift advance across the country.
Many of the capital’s residents were in disbelief at the speed at which Assad lost his hold on the country after nearly 14 years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million and drew in several foreign powers.
