Quick rebel victory in Aleppo shows dramatic power shift in Syria's conflict
Syrian rebels took control of Aleppo in just 72 hours marking a huge change in the long-running civil war. Russian forces stayed mostly quiet while Iran-backed groups were absent from the fight
The long-frozen Syrian war changed big-time last week when rebels took over Aleppo in just three days (something that took years of fighting back in 2016). The quick win shows how things are way-different now in the Middle-east
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels moved fast from Idlib and didnt face much push-back: Russiaʼs planes stayed quiet even though their big air-base was right there. The rebels also grabbed Tal Rifaat from Kurdish forces making their area even bigger
Assad and his partners do not seem ready to solve certain problems
The main reason why Assadʼs forces lost so quick is that his best friends werenʼt there to help. Iranʼs Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah pulled most of their people out because theyʼre busy fighting Israel now; plus Assads best troops were off dealing with ISIS somewhere else
- Russians didnt stop rebels at first
- Iran-backed fighters mostly left Syria
- Turkish troops helped rebels
- Kurdish forces lost ground
Moscow started bombing only after Aleppo fell - which is weird since they usually bomb ISIS targets far away from their base. Some think Russia let this happen to push Bashar al-Assad into making peace with Turkey (who wants to send back 4.7 million Syrian refugees)
The rebels dont stop there - theyʼre pushing south towards Hama city and ex-rebels in other places are starting to fight too. Its making everyone nervous about whats next: the US has to decide what to do about their Kurdish friends and theres worry ISIS might come back stronger
