Jubilation and gunfire as Syrians celebrate the end of the Assad family’s half-century rule

A Syrian rebel amid the overthrow of that country's regime. Image via The Associated Press.

The rebels said they freed people held at the notorious Saydnaya prison, where rights groups say thousands were tortured and killed. A video circulating online purported to show rebels breaking open cell doors and freeing dozens of female prisoners, many of whom appeared shocked and confused. At least one small child could be seen among them.

Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi, who appeared on State TV later in the day, sought to reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, saying: “Syria is for everyone, no exceptions. Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects.”

“We will not deal with people the way the Assad family did,” he added.

Residents of Damascus gathered to pray in mosques and to celebrate in the squares, chanting “God is great.” People also chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns. Teen boys picked up weapons that had been discarded by security forces and fired them in the air.

Revelers filled Umayyad Square, where the Defense Ministry is located. Men fired celebratory gunshots into the air, and some waved the three-starred Syrian flag, which predated the Assad government and was adopted by the revolutionaries.

“I cannot express my happiness,” said Bassam Masr. “But this happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where he is. I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years.”

Soldiers and police officers left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the Defense Ministry. Videos from Damascus showed families wandering into the presidential palace, with some emerging carrying stacks of plates and other household items.

Syria’s al-Watan newspaper, historically pro-government, wrote: “We are facing a new page for Syria. We thank God for not shedding more blood. We believe and trust that Syria will be for all Syrians.”

The newspaper added that media workers should not be blamed for publishing government statements in the past: “We only carried out the instructions and published the news they sent us.”

A statement from the Alawite sect — to which Assad belongs and which has formed the core of his base — called on young Syrians to be “calm, rational and prudent and not to be dragged into what tears apart the unity of our country.”

The rebels mainly come from the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria, which also has sizable Druze, Christian and Kurdish communities.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said in a video that the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and turn its functions over to a transitional government. A video shared on Syrian opposition media showed a group of armed men escorting him out of his office and to the Four Seasons hotel on Sunday.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Associated Press that Assad took a flight Sunday from Damascus.

A senior diplomat from the United Arab Emirates, which had sought to rehabilitate Assad’s image and has welcomed high-profile exiles in recent years, declined to comment on his whereabouts when asked by reporters at a conference in Bahrain.

Anwar Gargash said Assad’s current destination is a “footnote in history,” comparing it to the long exile of German Kaiser Wilhelm II after World War I.

Assad has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war, including a 2013 chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of the capital.

There was no immediate comment from Iran, which had been Assad’s staunchest supporter. The Iranian Embassy in Damascus was ransacked after apparently having been abandoned.

The rebel advances since Nov. 27 were the largest in recent years and saw the cities of Aleppo, Hama, and Homs fall in a matter of days as the Syrian army melted away. Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which provided crucial support to Assad throughout the uprising, abandoned him in the final days as they reeled from other conflicts.

The rebels are led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, which has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations.

Its leader, al-Golani, has sought to recast the group as a moderate and tolerant force. HTS set up a “salvation government” in 2017 to administer a large region in northwestern Syria under its control.

“Golani has made history and sparked hope among millions of Syrians,” said Dareen Khalifa, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group and an expert on Syrian groups. “But he and the rebels now face a formidable challenge ahead. One can only hope they rise to the occasion.”

The U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, called Saturday for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.”

The Gulf nation of Qatar, a key regional mediator, hosted an emergency meeting late Saturday of foreign ministers and top officials from eight countries with interests in Syria. The participants included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Turkey.

Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told reporters that they agreed on the need “to engage all parties on the ground,” including the HTS, and that the main concern is “stability and safe transition.”

Netanyahu said the 1974 agreement separating Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights had “collapsed,” with Syrian soldiers abandoning their positions, and that Israel had seized the buffer zone for its own protection.

The military said the deployment was meant to provide security for residents of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war and the international community, except for the United States, views it as occupied.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.