Syrians flocked to the principle sq. of the capital metropolis Damascus on Monday to mark what many regard as a long-awaited new daybreak after the autumn of president Bashar al-Assad, AFP journalists noticed.
Assad fled to Russia on Sunday after a lightning offensive spearheaded by Islamist rebels ousted him from energy, opening a brand new chapter in Syria’s historical past after 5 many years of rule by his clan.
AFP journalists at Umayyad Sq. noticed fighters deployed as joyful residents flocked to the scene following a nighttime curfew imposed by the rebels for the capital.
“It is indescribable, we by no means thought this nightmare would finish, we’re reborn,” 49-year-old Rim Ramadan, a civil servant on the finance ministry, advised AFP on the sq. within the coronary heart of the capital.
“We had been afraid for 55 years of talking, even at dwelling, we used to say the partitions had ears,” Ramadan mentioned, as folks honked their automotive horns and rebels fired their weapons into the air.
“We really feel like we’re dwelling a dream,” she added.
Elsewhere within the capital, some neighbourhoods had been abandoned, one other AFP journalist noticed.
The top of Assad’s rule follows a 14-year civil battle sparked by a brutal crackdown on democracy protests.
The battle killed greater than 500,000 folks and compelled half the inhabitants to flee their properties, many thousands and thousands of them overseas.
Assad inherited from his father Hafez al-Assad a system underneath which anybody suspected of dissent might be jailed or killed.
Assad relied on his alliances with Russia and Iran to stay on the helm regardless of the mass protests and armed insurrection.
However on November 27, a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched an offensive that tore by way of the nation, wresting management of metropolis after metropolis till they reached Damascus on Sunday.
In a matter of days, the grip of the military and safety forces collapsed and rebels moved into the principle cities of Aleppo, Hama, Daraa and Homs, earlier than coming into the capital, bringing about an finish to many years of Baath get together rule.
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