The Syrian capital woke up on Sunday to singing, cheering and gunfire in celebration of the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, after rebels said they had swept into the city and ousted the longtime ruler.
“I can’t believe I’m alive this time,” a grieving Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone from the capital’s Ummayad Square, where witnesses said dozens of people had gathered to celebrate.
“We have been waiting for this day for a long time,” said Batha, as the Islamist-led rebels and war monitor announced the end of decades of rule by the Assad family during the 13-year civil war.
“We are starting a new history for Syria,” Batha added.
Before the early morning call to prayer, some mosques broadcast religious songs usually reserved for festive occasions, while urging residents to stay at home and the city filled with chaos for a few hours before the rebels took over.
The rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other allied parties have imposed a lightning strike since November 27, sweeping the country from government control, including the main cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs and entering the capital Damascus early Sunday.
In dramatic footage, rebel fighters announced on national television that they had ousted the “tyrant” Assad, who the war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said had “run away”.
From the garden of a shopping mall, many Damascusians cheered, chanting “Allahu akbar”, or God is great, and stood at a broken statue of Assad’s father Hafez that they toppled, AFP footage showed.
Gunmen scattered through the streets of Damascus, firing into the air and chanting, “Syria is ours, not the Assad family’s.”
– ‘Crime’ –
Residents of the area told AFP that many soldiers, belonging to the Assad regime, quickly removed their military uniforms and left the Ummayad Square headquarters.
The television and radio facilities were empty, the former employee said.
Five loud explosions were heard in the capital early on Sunday, with the fleeing soldier, who asked not to be identified, saying it was likely gunfire or an explosion from a weapons depot.
“Our boss told us to leave and go home, so we knew it was over,” he told AFP.
In the picturesque old city of Damascus, home to a small Christian community, young people in the streets chanted “The people of Syria are one”, a message of reassurance to the minority groups in the multi-confessional country.
Elsewhere, in the Shaghur area, women screamed from their balconies, while others threw rice at passing soldiers who were shooting in the air.
Ilham Basatina, 50, said he could not believe that “after today”, he would no longer have to “be afraid”.
“There is great joy today, and it will not end until the perpetrator is arrested,” he said from his balcony, referring to Assad.
– ‘Culture of fear’ –
In the street, weary soldiers were kissing the ground, praying or taking pictures as the gunfire rang out.
Many Syrian media workers, civil servants and members of parliament quickly changed their photos on social media, replacing them with the opposition flag.
Waddah Abd Rabbo, editor-in-chief of the pro-government online daily Al-Watan, wrote on social media: “Syria’s media and media workers are innocent. us.”
Assad’s Baath party has ruled with an iron fist, restricting freedoms including freedom of the press, with only state-run media outlets and shops close to the government allowed to operate.
Syrian celebrity Ayman Zeidan, who had not publicly criticized Assad’s rule before, wrote on Facebook: “How I was deceived. Perhaps we were prisoners of a culture of fear, or perhaps we were afraid of change because we imagined it would lead to bloodshed and violence.”
“But here we are, entering a new phase with men who impressed us with their greatness … and the desire to restore the unity of the Syrian people,” he added.
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