The Assad regime’s brutal half-century-long grip on Syria has come to an end, in a stunning defeat by opposition insurgents who seized control of Damascus on Sunday after more than 13 years of civil war.
In extraordinary scenes, jubilant crowds took to the streets waving a revolutionary flag and shouting “Freedom”, as the capital was littered with the discarded uniforms of government forces.
Families of relatives left to rot for years in the regime’s notorious prisons waited anxiously for news of loved ones as videos showed fighters freeing thousands from jails across the country, including in the notorious Saydnaya prison in Damascus.
Others gleefully ransacked the presidential palace and residence, rifling through luxury designer items belonging to the long-term dictator, after President Bashar al-Assad, along with his wife Asmaa and their two children, as well as top officials, vanished.
Russia, a close ally that has propped up the regime for years and will see this as a major blow, said Assad left the country after negotiations with rebel groups and had given instructions to transfer power peacefully. Late on Sunday, Russian state media said Assad and his family had been granted asylum and were in Moscow.
World leaders including Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the end of the Assad regime, albeit amid concerns about what comes next for the war-torn region.
Assad’s sudden overthrow at the hands of a Turkish-backed revolt with roots in jihadist Sunni Islam, limits Iran’s ability to spread weapons to its allies and could cost Russia its Mediterranean naval base. It also paves the way for millions of refugees scattered for more than a decade in camps across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to finally return home.
For Syrians, it brought a sudden unexpected end to a war that had been in deep freeze for years, with hundreds of thousands already dead, cities pounded to dust, an economy hollowed out by global sanctions and no resolution in sight.
Families who had been cowering in their homes and fearing more bloody battles ahead, emerged on Sunday to celebrate.
“It was one of the smoothest transitions ever,” Mariam told The Independent from a town on the outskirts of the capital. “We thought there would be blood soaking the streets, but no one wanted to fight for Assad any more. Finally, Syrians can be proud of being Syrian.”
“I can’t stop crying,” added Ahmed, who owns a clothes shop also in a town near the capital. “I can’t believe he has been defeated.”
At the notorious Sadnaya prison just north of Damascus, where rebels freed inmates, many of them politican detainees, Zakaria Al-Ashara, who had been jailed for five years, spoke of tasting freedom for the first time.
“It’s an indescribable beautiful feeling. I couldn’t believe it when I got out. I dreamed of this moment and imagined it every day,” he told The Independent.
“Every moment was a nightmare. Yet, despite everything, I clung to the dream of freedom and never stopped praying.”
