JNIM is also moderating its more absolutist positions perhaps learning from the example of Syria's Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham a former Al Qaida affiliate that helped oust the Bashar al Assad regime in December 2024 and whose leader Ahmed al Sharaa is now president and courted by western governments...

In a year when traditional allies have crumbled – led by Bashar al Assad's regime in Syria Iran's mullahs and their allies in Hezbollah and Hamas and now Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro – or failed like Russia to deliver victories using matériel and doctrine in which the Armée Nationale Populaire (ANP) has invested heavily could Algiers' ageing regime weather such a defeat...

The overthrow of the Bashar al Assad's regime in Syria undermines Russia's ability to prop up the juntas in Bamako Ouagadougou and Niamey...

Following the collapse of Bashar al Assad's regime in Syria President Vladimir Putin is likely to pressure Algeria to be even more supportive...

The fall of Bashar al Assad in Syria will jeopardise some of the supply lines built up by Russia and Iran...

Their success there and in eastern Ukraine convinced Russia's generals to use Wagner in Syria where it undertook some of the most brutal operations in support of President Bashar al Assad's forces sometimes clashing with United States-backed local militias...

Both regimes have used live rounds against protestors with Sudanese security forces aping the tactics of the Syrian regime under President Bashar al Assad with an armed raid on a hospital in Omdurman which had been treating people with gunshot wounds...

One Libyan politician called the policy 'Syria light' comparing Russia's weapon deliveries and air support for Haftar with its backing for President Bashar al Assad in Damascus...