Updated
This page provides snapshots of online activities and representations following the removal of Bashar al-Assad from Syria.
The list appears to be all-Sunni and is probably all-Islamist, but it includes at least some names from factions other than HTS. Notably, also, there seem to be some jihadi foreign fighters on it—Jordanian, Uighur? But that deserves more investigation.
— Aron Lund (@aronlund.bsky.social) 30 December 2024 at 12:21
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On the streets of Free Damascus, I asked Syrians if they had a message to send to the people of Ukraine. Here is what they said: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcS1…
— Oz Katerji (@ozkaterji.bsky.social) 27 December 2024 at 12:58
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Allegedly a counter-protest in Latakia: t.me/ammamai/6218 Plenty of potential for neighborhood skirmishes—local chaos likely bigger risk than HTS-Alawi ties derailing directly? But per this rather good Enab Baladi piece, curfews seem to have calmed the situation: www.enabbaladi.net/730943/%D9%8…
— Aron Lund (@aronlund.bsky.social) 25 December 2024 at 21:28
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Protests in Syria over Christmas tree burning www.bbc.com/news/article…
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 24 December 2024 at 15:21
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Syria's minorities seek security as country charts new future www.bbc.com/news/article…
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 22 December 2024 at 11:36
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“parsley”: U.S. dollars “has nice handwriting”: is an informant “at his aunt’s house”: in prison The code Syrians used to evade detection by Assad’s secret police, courtesy of Ruby Mellen, @mohamadelchamaa.bsky.social and @reemakkad.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1…
— Matthew Hay Brown (@matthewhaybrown.bsky.social) 23 December 2024 at 15:21
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He returned to his destroyed home in #Homs, where no family was waiting for him. This was how the neighbors welcomed him. The neighbor said to him: "You are not an orphan. This whole house is yours." pic.twitter.com/EMVLx6bQP3
— Qusay Noor (@QUSAY_NOOR_) December 18, 2024
Skulls and body bags: Searching for Syria's disappeared www.bbc.co.uk/news/article…
— Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social) 15 December 2024 at 14:16
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Syrian Pilot Ragheed Ahmed Al-Tatari, arrested at 27 for refusing to bomb Hama in the 1980s, was honored by the people of Hama with the traditional gift of a sword after being freed by the new Syrian government.pic.twitter.com/7srJ5zZyjO https://t.co/UgciGyxBzR
— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 27, 2024
BREAKING: Bashar Al-Assad releases his 1st statement since his regime in #Syria collapsed. He denies fleeing & abandoning supporters. His statement also says: “I have never sought positions for personal gain.” Fittingly, this lie is issued as 2 extraordinary stories of his corruption emerged.🧵 1/
— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) 16 December 2024 at 13:43
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“there is concern about ethnic, religious, & sectarian tensions…However, I must express some skepticism about the predominant Western focus on their fate. These voices were absent when the Arab Sunni majority was being massacred, persecuted, and tortured.” YHS www.resetdoc.org/story/yassin…
— Justin Salhani (@justinsalhani.bsky.social) 16 December 2024 at 15:30
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This man is a hero like very few. Ragheed Al-Tatari was an airforce pilot who refused an order to bomb Hama during Hafez Assad’s 1982 massacres. He spent 42 years in prison. www.instagram.com/reel/DDmmFo1…
— Elia Ayoub إيليا أيوب (@ayoub.bsky.social) 15 December 2024 at 19:47
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This was embarrassing for CNN:
BREAKING: CNN has now CONFIRMED that the freed “prisoner” in their report was NOT an ordinary citizen as reported and as he claimed. As local Syrian sources were saying, he was indeed an Assad intelligence officer who faked his story with CNN. 👇
— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) 16 December 2024 at 22:54
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Must watch Channel 4 report on the mass graves in Syria, with over 100,000 dead estimated to be buried in just one site. The challenge to forensically document these sites will be huge. www.channel4.com/news/true-sc…
— Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social) 17 December 2024 at 09:32
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ID cards found as mass graves are now being uncovered across Syria, showing the extent of the regime's brutality. Remember the world was prepared to normalise with this monster!
— Leila (@leilashami.bsky.social) 16 December 2024 at 18:45
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news.sky.com/story/they-f…
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 17 December 2024 at 13:14
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I think the Che Guevarafication of al-Jolani/al-Sharaa has already begun in parts of the Arab world, and I think Arab despots in particular will be as concerned by the rise of a populist technocratic political Islam as South American autocrats were by Latin American Communism. pic.twitter.com/ytalpCyLU9
— Oz Katerji (@OzKaterji) December 16, 2024
Religious leaders of all sects celebrating the fall of Assad in Damascus today, Muslim, Christians, Druze, Sunni, Alawite. pic.twitter.com/zNZNWu7IKI
— Rami (@RamiSafadi93) December 13, 2024
an interesting thread … https://t.co/fOxpsbtarC
— Gary Bunt (@garybunt) December 15, 2024
Seeing this footage in this specific place is too overwhelming pic.twitter.com/noaE1c70EB
— Hassan I. Hassan (@hxhassan) December 14, 2024
New billboards put up by HTS's Salvation Government in Aleppo. Creating facts on the ground fast. pic.twitter.com/wIdtVS3p2h
— Aaron Y. Zelin (@azelin) December 10, 2024
There are no words for this:
If you weren't convinced he was a colossal douchebag before, there's this.
— Howard Eissenstat (@heissenstat.bsky.social) 14 December 2024 at 21:47
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Party in Damascus carrying on into the night
— Leila (@leilashami.bsky.social) 13 December 2024 at 21:28
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Few countries on Earth deserve a moment of joy more than Syria. Today was the first Friday prayers & day of rest without an Assad at the helm for 53 years. The scale of celebrations reflecting the tyranny ended. Up to 1 million killed who never got to see this day. 🟢⚪️⚫️
— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) 13 December 2024 at 23:15
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After being targeted and murdered by the Assad regime with the same viciousness that Israel deploys against Palestinians in Gaza, the White Helmets rescue workers are now welcomed as heroes in liberated Syria. 🧵
— Elia Ayoub إيليا أيوب (@ayoub.bsky.social) 13 December 2024 at 12:52
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photo of the day …
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 13 December 2024 at 22:40
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Assad's final hours in Syria: Deception, despair and flight www.reuters.com/world/middle…
— Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social) 13 December 2024 at 13:10
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Syrian revolutionaries gave a fitting send-off to a Russian military convoy as it withdrew—‘The Farewell of Shoes.’ After all, what better tribute for forces that killed thousands and turned cities like Aleppo into rubble? Truly, a goodbye they’ll never forget.
— Amer matar عامر مطر (@amermatar.bsky.social) 13 December 2024 at 20:23
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Beautiful, joyous photos of the first Friday prayers since Assad's fall from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. One of my favorite memories from Damascus (besides those involving food) a million years ago in 2005 was spending time in this mosque. I hope to return someday soon.
— Erin A. Snider (@erinsnider.bsky.social) 13 December 2024 at 17:21
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let’s hope this happens Syria chemical attack victims want investigations reopened www.bbc.com/news/article…
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 11 December 2024 at 08:34
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Good to hear Syrians on the ground here …
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 10 December 2024 at 14:43
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Grandma spittin
— Amarnath Amarasingam (@amaramarasingam.bsky.social) 9 December 2024 at 16:53
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HTS fatwa channel, asked about religious permissibility of parliament, says nothing forbids it so long as it's shari'ah-compliant – just another form of shura. jihadology.net/2024/12/08/n…
— Sam Heller | سام هيلر (@abujamajem.com) 9 December 2024 at 20:14
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A powerful article by @kshaheen.bsky.social @newlinesmag.bsky.social
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 9 December 2024 at 14:01
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Out of all the work I've done on Syria I think this is my favourite. It includes a lot of digital detective work, Russia stupidly providing key evidence, and Forensic Architecture doing clever things with 3D models, all to ID one chemical weapon www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/04…
— Eliot Higgins (@eliothiggins.bsky.social) 9 December 2024 at 10:34
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Remarkable…
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 9 December 2024 at 12:18
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HTS publish new photographs of its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, now going by his real name Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, watching over what appears to be an Israeli air strike in the country he has just conquered.
— Oz Katerji (@ozkaterji.bsky.social) 9 December 2024 at 11:31
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Good photo…
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 9 December 2024 at 12:16
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Central London today full of joyful Syrians 😭😭❤️❤️🙌🙌
— Zoe Gardner (@zoejardiniere.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 18:24
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Central London today full of joyful Syrians 😭😭❤️❤️🙌🙌
— Zoe Gardner (@zoejardiniere.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 18:24
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Syrians celebrating in Latakia were filmed riding around on a toppled statue of former president Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, as it was dragged through the streets.
— aljazeera.com (@aljazeera.com) 8 December 2024 at 18:29
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news.sky.com/story/syria-…
— Gary R. Bunt (@garyrbunt.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 14:56
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As we all watch some of #Syria’s horrific prisons being opened up, let's remember the systematic torture inside them under Assad’s rule: www.hrw.org/report/2015/… Survivors & families have been bravely seeking justice for years: www.hrw.org/feature/2024…
— Andrew Stroehlein (@andrewstroehlein.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 10:25
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Utterly astonishing . End of an era that began in 1971. “Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying that President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been set free.” apnews.com/article/syri…
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 09:02
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Syrian TV broadcasts a still image with the words: The great revolution has triumphed and the Assad regime has fallen.
— Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول (@faredalmahlool.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 08:48
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Uniforms of Syrian soldiers from the dictator Bashar al-Assad’s army, abandoned as they fled Damascus. A historic image marking the end of the dictator and his army.
— Amer matar عامر مطر (@amermatar.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 03:11
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No one noticed: The peaceful & orderly takeover of Syria owes much to the rebels mirroring Prophet Muhammad’s return to Mecca after exile. Down to the words used, HTS instructions to fighters mirror that: ‘Whoever stays home is safe’ ‘Enter humbly’ ‘No sacking or robbery’ ‘Don’t terrify civilians’
— Hassan Hassan (@hhassan.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 09:10
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Syria opposition forces have declared that the 24-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad has come to an end hours after fighters entered the capital, Damascus, following a lightning advance across the country ⤵️
— aljazeera.com (@aljazeera.com) 8 December 2024 at 07:29
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Please check my Bluesky and Twitter accounts for further coverage.
