Syrians have finally achieved what antigovernment protesters demanded 13 years ago when they first took to the streets to call for the “fall of the regime”.
President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on the 2011 pro-democracy uprising spiralled into a devastating, multi-front war which killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. His hold on power was brought to a swift end in the early hours of December 8 as opposition forces swept into the capital, Damascus.
Below, we have compiled some history-making scenes from Syria as the country enters a new era after half a century of the al-Assad family rule.
Delight in Damascus
As news spread that opposition forces had entered Damascus, it became increasingly apparent that al-Assad’s time in power was limited. Almost immediately, people filled the streets of the city to celebrate, with many posing for photos with opposition fighters:
Others, meanwhile, vandalised monuments of the al-Assad family. In Latakia, people were filmed riding around on a toppled statue of former President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father who ruled from 1971 till his death in 2000, as it was dragged behind a truck along the road:
Confirmation that al-Assad had been toppled came via an announcement on state television, which declared Damascus “liberated” after a lightning offensive that lasted for just 11 days:
As night fell for the first time since al-Assad was overthrown, thousands of cars jammed the roads to Damascus as displaced people from across the country rushed to the capital:
Survivors of al-Assad’s prisons freed
Videos also showed the remarkable moments opposition fighters broke detainees out of government-run prisons notorious for torture. Among the freed prisoners were women and children. One overjoyed ex-detainee said he was scheduled to be executed an hour before he was freed:
First international news reporting from inside Damascus
Within hours of al-Assad’s fall, Al Jazeera correspondent Zeina Khodr was in Damascus. She crossed the border from Lebanon as news broke that the Syrian president had fled. Watch her extraordinary coverage from inside the ransacked state television office and outside al-Assad’s abandoned presidential palace:
Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar also made it to the capital, where his live report was nearly drowned out by bursts of celebratory gunfire, while an Israeli air attack had left a building smouldering behind him:
Refugees rejoice
From Berlin to Bucharest, Syrians in cities around the world spontaneously gathered to celebrate al-Assad’s ousting on Sunday morning, a moment that many said they had been waiting for nearly 14 years. Some six million Syrians were forced to flee their homeland during the war. In Istanbul, home to more than one million Syrian refugees, thousands cheered, danced and waved the opposition’s flag:
People have already begun returning to Syria after years forced abroad. By Monday afternoon, a huge queue had been formed at Syria’s Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish border. Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid reported on the newfound hopes of Syrians who anticipate a better future after al-Assad:
Global reaction
Syria’s war drew in several regional and world powers, many of which have expressed their views on the opposition takeover. The United States has long backed Kurdish-led forces in Syria’s northeast. US President Joe Biden called the fall of al-Assad an “act of justice”, adding that “Syria is at a moment of opportunity but also risk and uncertainty”:
