President Bashar al-Assad ruled his country with an iron fist for 24 years, as his father had done for 30 years before him. When he appeared to prevail in Syria’s civil war, it was widely assumed he would remain in power until he was ready to hand over to his own son.

Instead, his supposedly indomitable regime turned out to be a hollow shell, crumbling in only 11 days in the face of an advance by lightly armed rebels. As opposition forces converged on Damascus from the north and the south late last Saturday night, Assad fled to the airport and boarded a plane, according to Syrians in Damascus. Russian state media reported on Sunday that he had been granted asylum in Moscow.

Washington Post