Syrian rebels topple Assad, transforming Middle East

 Syria rebel fighters raced into Damascus unopposed on Sunday, overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad and ending more than five decades of his family's iron-fisted rule after a lightning advance that reversed the course of a 13-year civil war.

In one of the most consequential turning points in the Middle East for generations, the fall of Assad's government wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world.

His sudden overthrow at the hands of a Turkish-backed revolt with roots in jihadist Sunni Islam limits Iran's ability to spread weapons to its allies and could cost Russia its Mediterranean naval base. It also paves the way for millions of refugees scattered for more than a decade in camps across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to finally return home.

For Syrians, it brought a sudden unexpected end to a war that had been in deep freeze for years, with hundreds of thousands already dead, cities pounded to dust, an economy hollowed out by global sanctions and no resolution in site.