Syria’s iron-fisted leader Bashar al-Assad is the second generation of an autocratic family dynasty that held power for more than five decades and his disappearance amid a lighting rebel advance cap an astonishing reordering of power in a strategically vital Middle Eastern nation.

The Syrian government collapsed early Sunday, falling to a lightning rebel offensive that seized control of the capital of Damascus.

On Wednesday last week, rebel fighters led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National army burst out of their enclave around Idlib in northwestern Syria.

Following are reactions from around the world to events in Syria. Syria's army command notified officers on Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad's 24-year authoritarian rule has ended, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters,

Assad, the Syrian president who inherited power in 2000 with promises of reform, only to brutally suppress his opponents in a war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, has been toppled in a lighting rebel advance,

The Assad family dictatorship that ruled Syria for more than 50 years melts away, and outside powers maneuver for influence.

Khalidi, Timour Azhari and Jaida Taha AMMAN/BEIRUT/CAIRO (Reuters) -Syria's army command notified officers on Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad's 24-year authoritarian rule has ended, a Syrian officer who was informed of the move told Reuters,