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Officials of the Biden administration are saying that based on the speed of the advance by Syrian rebels, they see the possibility of the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad falling within a matter of days, five US officials told CNN.

If this analysis proves true, it would represent a surprisingly rapid collapse of the regime, following a 14-year civil war that has been relatively quiet in recent years until just last week. These U.S. officials told CNN that no formal assessment of Assad’s fate has emerged, and that his demise is not a foregone conclusion. 

“The emerging consensus is that is an increasingly plausible scenario,” one senior US official said.

“Probably by next weekend the Assad regime will have lost any semblance of power,” another official said.

“Only thing that would delay a rebel conquest would be a well-organized coup and reorganization, but Assad’s folks have done a good job of stifling any potential competitors,” the official added.

The Biden administration was apparently caught off guard, according to CNN, by the speed of the advance by the so-called rebels. The army in place to defend Damascus, the capital of Syria, and the president, appears fragile and severely weakened.  

Last Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan referred to the rebels as a “a terrorist organization designated by the United States. So, we have real concerns about the designs and objectives of that organization.”

The U.S. has nearly 1,000 troops in Syria. 

On Saturday President-elect Donald Trump warned the U.S. not to intervene, according to USA Today. 

“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend,” Trump said in a post on his social media site, Truth Social. “THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!”