Good morning. It’s been only 12 days since rebel groups in Syria seized 15 villages in Aleppo province under the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Yesterday, after an astonishing blitzkrieg campaign that has left the leading group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), commanding seven times as much territory as when it started, government forces in Damascus melted away without a fight – and the rebels took the capital.
Even as rebel fighters and civilians took selfies in the presidential palace, it was announced that Assad had fled the capital in a private plane. Last night, Russian state media said that he and his family were in Moscow and had been granted asylum on “humanitarian grounds”.
