What you need to know about Syria’s renewed civil war

The long-running civil war appeared to have reached its climax on Sunday when Syrian rebels stormed the capital Damascus and President Bashar Assad fled the country as his government appeared to have collapsed.

Rami Abdurrahman – who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the opposition – told the Associated Press that Assad took a flight from Damascus on Sunday. Two Syrian military officials also told Reuters that Assad had flown out of Damascus on Sunday to an unknown destination. The White House told CBS News it did not know where Assad was.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said early Sunday that he is still in Damascus and said the government is ready to “extend a hand” to the opposition and transfer their duties to the interim government, AP reported.

Abdurrahman previously said that the terrorists were operating in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya. He also added that opposition fighters were also marching from eastern Syria towards the Damascus area of ​​Harasta.

Hassan Abdul-Ghani, the rebel commander, also said on Sunday morning that the army had “fully liberated” the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest city, Reuters reported.

What happened to the war in Syria?

Thousands of people fled the area amid the escalation of the civil war, which had been raging without much progress on either side for years, until the rebels are running wild about two weeks ago.

The rebels took control of another city, Hama, and a week later began an attack in the north of the country. The first major prize in their offensive was taking control of Aleppo last week, Syria’s second most populous city.

Their sudden advance has alarmed many observers of the protracted conflict, and SOHR says more than 820 people have been killed since it began, including more than 100 civilians.

Syrian rebels say the goal “remains the overthrow” of Assad

The war in Syria began in 2011 when a democratic uprising to end Assad’s long rule quickly escalated into a brutal civil war. Since then, the conflict has killed more than 500,000 people and driven an estimated 12 million from their homes.

The war appeared to have stalled after Assad’s government regained control of several cities with the help of Russia and Iran, in addition to Iran’s powerful Hezbollah group in Lebanon. Some areas in the north and east of the country remain under the control of Kurdish, US-backed rebel groups. The current offensive, however, has been largely led by the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS), which has sought to publicly distance itself from its jihadist roots as the regional branch of al Qaeda.

With other conflicts facing Assad’s supporters Iran, Russia and Hezbollah, the rebels are believed to have seen an opportunity to fight his army again.

The leader of HTS told CNN in a recent interview that the purpose of the offensive is to remove Assad from power.

“If we talk about goals, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime,” Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani told CNN. “The seeds of the regime’s defeat have always been there… the Iranians tried to revive the regime, bought it time, and later the Russians also tried to support it. But the truth remains: this regime is dead.”

Rebel attacks in Syria are worsening the humanitarian situation

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the latest fighting, most of them headed for Raqqa province, which is controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Despite the agreement to allow safe passage for those fleeing Aleppo province, SDF sources told CBS News that more than 120 vehicles carrying hundreds of civilians were attacked by different Syrian Islamist groups on their way. Local authorities say the humanitarian situation for those arriving in safe havens is dire.

About 136 schools in Raqqa and 63 schools in Tabqqa city have been turned into shelters for IDPs. The Raqqa stadium, which was once used as a prison by ISIS terrorists during their control of the area, has also been turned into a camp to provide shelter to displaced civilians from the cold.

“The situation is catastrophic,” Zhwan Mullah, a member of the local disaster response team, told CBS News. “The number of IDPs is much larger than we can help. UN and NGO support so far has been very little.”

Saeed Muhammad Hassan, 53, fled Raqqa near Aleppo. On his way, he was separated from his wife, Sabah. Hassan, like a growing number of civilians separated from their loved ones while fleeing war-torn areas, took to local radio stations to plead to be reunited with Sabah.

“Many people are coming to us through different channels, looking for missing family members to be safe on the road to safety,” Sirwan Haji Birko, head of ARTA FM, told CBS News. “We are trying to help with everything we can to find the missing, on the radio and on social media.”

contributed to this report.