Inside The Fall Of Syria’s Brutal Dictator

my name is. R I'm 26 years old I'm currently in h. Syria there are so many people on the. streets probably all of Syria I'm not. even. incarcerating everyone's celebrating. they're singing they're taking pictures. they're taking. videos what's what you're hearing right. now are not bullets actually they're. just uh more like fireworks.

[Applause]. people are just shocked that we actually. got R of the brutal government that we. were. under there is just this peaceful. feeling that you get that it's okay. you're this is this is over it's over. it's the end of a 50-year-old oppression. that tortured us that took away loved. ones from us.

we're all afraid that if we sleep this. might be a. dream is this a. Dream from The New York Times I'm. Sabrina tavernes and this is the. daily Syria has been controlled by one. family for more than half a century it. ruled by repression Devastation and. violence but about 2 weeks ago the.

regime began to. falter and. then over the course of one stunning. night it. collapsed today my colleague Carla Gul. on the fall of Bashar Al Assad and what. comes. next it's Monday December. 9th so carot there's been an absolutely.

incredible turn of events in Syria we're. talking on Sunday. Morning Walk us through what happened it. has been the most incredible turn of. events in just 12 days we've turned from. what we thought was really a frozen. conflict going nowhere to an uprising in. this 13-year Civil War. [Music].

armed groups in Syria have reportedly. attacked government forces in the. Western Country Side of Aleppo Province. it started with a small Rebel group come. up from the northwest of the country and. very rapidly in just a matter of days. they took three cities the Syrian Army. concedes it has lost control of large. parts of Aleppo Aleppo in the north the. second biggest city of the country and. then they started to move South islamist. forces are on their fourth day of a. lightning offense through several towns.

and Villages toward Syria's fourth. largest city Hama and then they kept. going opposition Fighters now on their. way going south towards homs that then. leads to the capital Damascus this is. when suddenly it seemed that they were. ambitious enough to actually topple the. government and so by Friday we knew that. the capital was in danger and Saturday. you saw reports of gunfire in the city. Syrian rebels are telling media Outlets. entered the capital city of Damascus.

then you saw these reports of the army. leaving abandoning the airport some of. them abandoning the uniforms on the. roads and then overnight Saturday night. suddenly in a. [Music]. rush with the help of God the city of. Damascus was liberated and the regime of. the tyan Bashar Al Assad was toppled the. rebels took the state TV and they. announced that they'd taken control of.

the whole of the capital and that. President Bashar Al Assad had got on a. plane and left the country Long Live. Free. Syria so it's really an incredibly Swift. movement of events from a total. dictatorship to he's. [Music]. gone I mean it was just unbelievable. really like that this country suddenly.

was. leaderless yes and Syria has had the. same leaders the same family of leaders. for 50 years a very authoritarian family. Bashar al-assad has been in power now. but his father was in power before him. and so they've ruled this country with. an iron grip since the 1970s so it's. really a big deal it is a big deal and I. want to unpack it with you so how did. this forever regime in Syria suddenly.

shockingly just disappear overnight. where should we start to explain. that well this is the culmination of the. Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 when. different countries started to rise up. against the. dictatorships we saw it in Tunisia and. we saw it in Egypt and we saw it in. Libya and Syria joined that run of. protests people daring to come out onto. the streets asking for freedom for.

democracy for human rights dignity and. Syria was the same as the others but. what happened in Syria was the. government of Syria under Assad really. cracked down used violence against the. protesters but then did Mass arrests. interrogations torture disappearances a. lot of executions and then some of the. protesters took up weapons and it became. an armed Insurgency and a civil War.

essentially the country was fighting. each other and then this sparked the. introduction of really radical extremist. jihadist groups the most well-known and. largest was Islamic State it got very. very brutal in Syria it has a brutal. past but this was something on a. different scale and then Assad doubled. down he gassed civilians in some of the. war to take control back of some of the. Cities.

and then you know Millions were. displaced fleeing the country fleeing a. lot into turkey and Lebanon in. neighboring countries and you know. heading for Europe or anywhere they. could it was really um a most Gastly. Civil War and and by 2014 hundreds of. thousands have been killed and and. wounded at this point who is winning. that war well that's the interesting. thing Asad for all his brutal repression. is actually barely hanging on and that. when we started to see other countries.

that have stakes in Syria start to get. involved right okay so that is also when. Syria starts to get really complicated. so lay that out for me Carla what starts. to happen yes so Isis was a huge concern. especially for the West they were. already in Iraq and they were expanding. their territory and they were recruiting. massively so that's when in 2014. American troops entered the prey. particularly to to fight Isis and to.

repress this very very virent jihadist. group that was obviously interested in. attacking Western countries and so what. happened next who's the next big player. that comes on the scene so there were. actually two big players that came on. the scene and they came in on the side. of Assad that was Russia and Iran and. Russia came in in a very big way with. you know serious Firepower planes Jets. fighter bombers weaponry and a lot of.

advice and tactics and they brought. ships into the ports and so on and then. Iran had the foot soldiers on the ground. there were a lot of them who came in. from Iran um but they also had Hezbollah. very experienced very uh accomplished. fighters who came in from Lebanon and. the Iranians sent in advisers and. Military advisers who ran the campaign. so they really did a great amount of. actually retaking territory for the. Assad regime and why do Iran and Russia.

enter the war like that so they for both. Iran and Russia it was very important to. see the Assad regime survive Russia had. long had relations with Syria going back. you know right through the Communist. times and so they wanted to be able to. keep their access to the Mediterranean. their trade their diplomatic influence. and Iran had an equally important reason. to be involved they pouched it in.

religious terms but it was very clearly. a. geopolitical desire to have good. relations with Syria and influence but. also to have a very important land. bridge through Syria to their allies. Hezbollah the militia in Lebanon so for. those reasons they also wanted to see. Assad survive so bottom line Syria. becomes this kind of cauldron of. geopolitical rivalries absolutely and. those two powers Iran and Russia are.

propping up Assad he's in power but he's. got all these Rebel groups around the. country pushed to the edges and it's. since 2016 it's been like locked so how. do we get from that deadlocked Civil War. to the rapid toppling of Assad that. everybody just watched. unfold so the biggest change of course. was the two main backers of Assad Russia.

and Iran became massively distracted by. other events and weakened it was the. wars in other countries that caused this. Russia is engaged in a really tough war. in Ukraine and they've had to move. troops out of Syria deploy them in. Ukraine they' expended all their efforts. and men and money and weapons on that. war and then the second war is obviously. Israel's fight first in Gaza but then in.

Lebanon against Hezbollah and the. attacks that Israel has Meed out on Iran. in Syria they've done a large number of. air strikes on Iranian elements but also. particularly Hezbollah who had been the. foot soldiers for Iran to help Assad's. Syrian Army they were really hit hard in. the recent months and that was very. debilitating for the Iranian effort to.

shore up. Assad and so the moment those things. were happening the Syrian rebels were. obviously watching and noticing they. could see that the resistance was weak. that Russia and Iran were distracted and. struggling in fact in both their Wars. and that's when they. [Music]. pounced we'll be right back. [Music].

so who are these Rebel forces who just. toppled Assad tell me about them so. there are a hodg podge of lots of. different groups but the main mover and. the main group behind this offensive is. hay T Alam it's called HTS for short in.

the west its name means the organization. for the liberation of Syria or of the. Levant it's a very Islamic very strict. actually organization comes from the. Jihadi tradition and it's designated by. many countries in the west and the. United States as a terror group and who. leads it who's in charge it's led by a. Saudi born Syrian he's in his 40 s he's. called Abu Muhammad Al jalani that's his.

n his chosen name for the. war he lived in Saudi then he grew up in. his teens in Syria he was a student when. he then left to join the fight against. America in Iraq oh wow and he joined. Al-Qaeda and then he got arrested by the. US forces in Iraq and he spent several. years in bua jail which is a famous.

prison camp where a lot of the al-qaed. and islamist uh militias were detained. and kept and of course it became a a. great meeting place for them all because. they were all in there together for for. many years so that is his history that's. really interesting because it probably. means he had some pretty serious. jihadist. credentials but he clearly got out of. prison what did he do next what we know. is that he eventually returned to Syria.

and he set up an Al-Qaeda Affiliated. group at the beginning of the Civil War. and then he was among the groups that. were gradually pushed back as the. Russians and the Iranians helped the. Assad government take control the rebels. were pushed back into the. Northwestern corner of Syria in idlib. Province and that's where he ended up in. 2016 and then there's something really. interesting happened they down in out. they're under bombardment they've really.

got their backs to the wall and he as a. leader of his group he starts reforming. he changes the name of his group and. then gradually he breaks from Al-Qaeda. and he turns himself into a Syrian. nationalist leader and it's been a. steady thing since then over the last 8. years and we're all watching to see is. it a big PR push or is it really.

[Music]. serious yeah that's what I want to know. I mean can one be former Al-Qaeda like. how does that even work well I think it. is interesting in Syria I think you know. I've followed Jihadi groups all over the. world and a lot of them they talk tough. talk for several reasons to look strong. and to look aggressive but also so. because they think it ticks some boxes.

where they can get support and and. financing and so on and I think the. Syrian groups were just the same I've. never met jolani but I've asked many. people who have met him and some will. say he's a Die Hard others say he's more. pragmatic and I actually went four years. ago on an embed with HTS to their. stronghold in idlib wait CL you went on. an ined with HTS um I did several times. in fact because the there were some. things they decided they needed to tell.

the Western World so they invited. journalists like me I was based in. Istanbul to come and see and the trip. includes always a long lunch and a sort. of long political discussion I mean it's. not quite a long diet tribe but where. they. explain what they're about and what they. believe in so what was it like there car. they are super Islamic and you could. feel they are authoritarian they control. everything they controlled where we went.

we could talk to whoever we want but. they were very cautious to be in charge. and of course between the lines we could. understand that these guys rule it but. they are of their society there's not. much freedom of speech certainly in the. media but there were other things that I. think people felt they were running. quite a good ship and how were they for. or women how is life for women there.

often an indicator with Islamic regimes. to tell you truth when you go to idlib. most people are destitute so quite. frankly they won't talk to you about. islamist rules they'll talk to you about. they haven't got enough food for their. kids but we did reporting on some of the. women who who felt very threatened by. this group and felt they had to leave. there are people who were arrested there. were people who were beaten there's. possibly some people who were who were. disappeared so Prett ruthless group who.

were set at first on gaining complete. control and now they're trying to reform. themselves and appear softer but their. first years when they were establishing. control were they were pretty ruthless. so it sounds like not quite Taliban. likee but some hard edges yes I would. say that exactly that so in other words. very unclear what this group could mean. for the future of Syria or even really. if it's going to be the future of Syria. absolutely it's very fluid we know that.

Assad has left the country and we've. seen that jalani has arrived in Damascus. he's made a statement to the nation he's. called on his troops to behave not to. pursue people not to destroy things but. I think it's very clear that for him. this it's The Liberation from the Assad. regime that was the main aim and he's. achieved that so now what does he do. next there are a lot of different groups. they're sort of under an umbrella of his.

but of course you know in these sort of. events you often see different groups. turning on each other uh for power so. that's the $64 million question of what. happens further but he does seem to be. someone who has the sternness and the. Charisma possibly to manage that but. we'll have to see and he's he's really. not been out there a lot all these years. he hasn't done a of interviews so we.

don't even know how much the syrians. will will like him and accept him so it. there everything's up in the air at the. moment so that's galani but of course. there's this geopolitical earthquake. that this is causing right that is. happening at the same time absolutely. and and this is you know very powerful. important country in the Middle East a. crucial place on the map if you look at. it all the countries around are going to. be deeply concerned and want to. influence you've got turkey and the. north involved already with troops.

inside Syria you've got Iran of course. hurting and uh pushed out but already. saying it wants a role in Syria in the. future and then you've got Israel. actually taking action just this morning. we we learn that they've moved in troops. and taken control of a buffer zone on. its border with Syria and then Russia is. also saying it still wants a role. although that remains to be seen if if. the jihadis would accept that and then.

of course the United States which has. 900 troops still in Syria and has made. some strikes uh just to remind opponents. not to come and attack them so it's a. huge as we mentioned before a huge. cauldron of geopolitical rivalries and. that's going to be something to try and. work out and decipher uh in the coming. days and weeks it's like all of the. cards have just been thrown up into the. air I think you're right yeah and and. that that's also for the Arab world this.

was so interesting and important because. they were steadily moving towards. acceptance of Assad staying in power and. now that's been completely turned upside. down carot I want to just pause for a. moment and think about what just. happened from the perspective of. syrians I mean as we said this place has. literally been under this regime for. about half a century the just changed. that's an incredible moment for the.

Syrian people it's like an entire. country just suddenly gets to wake up. from this long sleep or. something and I would guess that while. that is potentially. hopeful it's also a really perilous. moment because as you and I both know. when dictators collapse violence and. Chaos can. ensue yeah absolutely I mean for me and. for a lot of the syrians I've been. talking to in the last week and week and.

a half it's the sense of Liberation the. relief the excitement and the most. compelling has been the release of. people from prisons all over the country. there have been extraordinary scenes of. people staggering out and uh some of. them barely able to walk but so happy. and some of them have been in prison for. you know more than a decade including. children who've been imprisoned with. their mothers so it's that's a huge huge. release for the entire country and.

that's why they're all celebrating on. the streets at the moment but of course. the the syrians are saying this is a. great relief lifted but uh we're also. very. [Music]. fearful I think for syrians you know. we've had 400,000 people die in this. 13-year Civil War 14 million people left. the country as refugees abroad and the.

fear of course is is everyone that it's. going to go back to that or more or. different ethnic groups God forbid start. fighting each other you know whether. it's for power in a city or in a whole. region or over oil fields or. wealth so that's what the syrians fear. they they're telling me we're. celebrating today but just for one day. then we're we're very worried you know. so so we have to see what goes forward.

and we don't know what's going to come. [Music]. next carot thank. you thank. [Music]. you on Sunday night president Assad. surfaced in Russia Russian State media. said that Assad and his family had been. granted political Asylum there meanwhile. the US military carried out one of the. largest series of air strikes in Syria.

in months saying that it would not allow. Isis to take advantage of the collapse. of government there to. regroup we'll be right. [Music]. back here's what else you should know. today in his first first sitdown. broadcast network interview since.

winning re-election president-elect. Donald Trump outlined an aggressive plan. for the early days of his second term. you promised to end Birthright. citizenship on day one is that still. your plan yeah absolutely speaking on. Meet the Press on NBC he said he would. try to end automatic citizenship for. children of immigrants change would. maybe have to go back to the people but. we have to end it and he said he would. pardon supporters who stormed the. capital on January ar ar 6 2021 first.

day first day first day yeah I'm looking. first day issue these pardons these. people have been there how long is it 3. or 4 years he said that members of. Congress who investigated his role in. that attack on the capital like. Republican Liz Cheney should be put in. jail he said he would not direct his new. attorney general or FBI director to. pursue the matter but indicated that he. expected them to do it on their. own today's episode was produced by CL. tennis getter Carlos PRI and Michelle.

Banja with help from Lindsay Garrison it. was edited by Patricia Willams with help. from Ben Calhoun contains original music. by Maran Lozano Dan Powell and Pat. mccusker and was engineered by Chris. Wood our theme music is by Jim brunberg. and Ben Lanser of wonderly special. thanks to Yara baumi. [Music].

that's it for the daily I'm Sabrina. tavernes see you tomorrow. [Music].