Rebel forces in Syria say they have ended Assad's rule
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Five decades of authoritarian Assad family rule in Syria have ended with the president fleeing the capital before it fell to rebels without resistance. His former international backer, Russia, says he's left the country.
In this special edition of Newshour focusing on events in Syria, we ask what's next for a country that's been torn apart by civil war forcing millions of people to flee? Will there be an orderly transition of power to the rebels ? Why did the regime collapse so suddenly ? We'll hear from supporters and critics of the Assad government. And from the Red Cross in a chaotic Damascus - what the future is for the hundreds of thousands tortured and detained under Assad's murderous rule.
(Photo: People celebrate after Syrian rebels announced they've ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Beirut, Lebanon December 8, 2024. Credit: REUTERS/Ahmad Al-Kerdi)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to a special edition of NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:08.5 | Coming to you live from our studios in central London, I'm Julian Marshall. |
| 0:13.5 | And we're going to devote today's programme to the fall of the House of Asset. |
| 0:18.6 | The family that rules Syria so brutally for more than 50 years |
| 0:22.4 | has been brought down in 11 days by an Islamist-led rebel alliance that swept into Damascus overnight |
| 0:29.8 | with President Bashar al-Assad reportedly fleeing the city shortly before its arrival. |
| 0:36.0 | It's a development with profound consequences for Syria itself. |
| 0:40.8 | Will there be an orderly transition of power? And if so, to who? It also represents a shake-up in |
| 0:47.5 | strategic alliances. Russia and Iran were backing President Assad, but in the end cut him loose. |
| 0:53.9 | Turkey has been supporting the rebel alliance and stands to gain from Assad's ouster, |
| 0:58.8 | not least in its quarrel with Syria's Kurds. |
| 1:02.4 | And then there are the millions of Syrians who fled the country since the start of the |
| 1:07.0 | Civil War in 2011 who can now entertain the possibility of returning home. |
| 1:12.9 | We'll be looking at those issues over the next hour, but we begin in the Syrian capital today |
| 1:18.1 | and the sons of guns being the east and from the north. |
| 1:35.0 | It's an alliance led by Hayat Pari al-Shams, or HTS for short. |
| 1:40.1 | They made this statement after they seized a state television building in Damascus. |
| 1:49.1 | By the grace of God, the city of Damascus has been liberated, |
| 1:53.6 | and the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has been deposed. |
| 1:57.4 | All the oppressed detainees have been released from the regime's jails. |
| 2:02.7 | The liberation of Damascus Operation Room urges the Mujahideen and the citizens to protect all the assets of the free Syrian state. |
| 2:10.9 | Long live Syria, free and proud. |
... |
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