Damascus, Dec 8 (Representative) Syria’s opposition leader, Hadi al-Bahra, has told the Arabic news organisation Al-Arabiya that the President Assad regime has fallen and that a “dark era in Syria’s history has passed, media reports said on Sunday. Bahra, the leader of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, has assured the public that the situation in Damascus is safe, the BBC reports said. “To our people of all sects and religions, as long as you do not raise arms against any other citizen and as long as you stay in your homes, you are safe,” he wrote on X. “There will be no cases of revenge or retaliation, and no violations of human rights. People’s dignity will be respected, and their dignity will be preserved.” According to reports, Syria PM Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalalisaid is ‘ready to cooperate’ with leadership chosen by the people. In a speech broadcast on social media, Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali also said that Syria “can be a normal country that builds good relations with its neighbours and the world”. Syrians have been cheering as rebel forces launched successful offensives in major cities over the past week-and-a-half. On Sunday, similar scenes of celebration were seen in Damascus as they entered, and President Bashar al-Assad was reported to have fled, the report said. Millions of Syrians who had been forcibly displaced outside the country have taken to social media to celebrate the end of President Bashar al-Assad’s decades’ long rule over the country on 8 December. “Oh God, I cannot stop crying. I am imagining the day I go back,” Human Rights Activist Rima Flihan writes on her Facebook page. Syria has seen the world’s largest refugee crisis, according to the UNHCR. The organisation estimates that around 6.6 million Syrians were forced to flee their homes since 2011. “How lonely is this feeling of happiness when we are all scattered across the world”, one user on Facebook posted. As updates keep coming in until the early hours of 8 December, many say they cannot sleep. According to reports, as the opposition forces arrived in Damascus, many users posted videos of themselves celebrating and shedding tears of joy.
Many celebrated, especially when news came out that opposition forces took over the notorious Saydnaya prison near Damascus and freed tens of thousands of political detainees held there. “This is the day we all waited for,” one user writes, the report said. “Syria is now for Syrians,” another said. Rim Turkmani, director of the Syria Conflict Research Programme at the London School of Economics, spoke to BBC News about the fast-moving developments in Syria. Rebel forces have declared Syria “free”, saying the “tyrant” President Bashar al-Assad has left. It is the end of a dark era and the beginning of a new one, HTS said on Telegram. People who were displaced or were imprisoned by the Assad regime’s half-century reign can now come home, the rebels say. It will be a “new Syria” where “everyone lives in peace and justice prevails,” HTS added. There are reports of celebrations starting in Umayyad Square, a landmark in the heart of Damascus home to important government agencies, including the Ministry of Defence and the Syrian Armed Forces. A video circulating on social media shows music being blasted and about a dozen people dancing around a tank reportedly abandoned by the military, the BBC report said. Syrian Defence ministry officials have reportedly withdrawn from their headquarters in Damascus. According to media reports, UK-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports that hundreds of members of the Syrian army and security forces have been seen taking off their military uniforms after being told that they were being discharged as the regime had fallen. Orders had reportedly been issued to them to withdraw from Damascus International Airport following the departure of a private plane. Rebel group HTS is set to broadcast its first message to the public on Syrian television shortly, the report added. The group said earlier on Sunday that it was seizing control of the radio and television headquarters in Damascus to broadcast its victory announcement.