Jubilant Syrians fill squares for victory rallies

Thousands of Syrians have packed the streets of the capital Damascus and other cities to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

In Damascus, people gathered at the iconic Umayyad Mosque to pray ahead of jubilant demonstrations called by Islamist rebels who led the armed uprising against Assad.

Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who has now started using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, had urged Syrians “to take to the streets to express their joy” on Friday to commemorate “the victory of the blessed revolution”.

Assad fled to Russia on Sunday as the regime established by his father 50 years ago collapsed in just a few tumultuous days.

The Umayyad Square in Damascus had a party atmosphere. Loudspeakers were set up and music played: “Raise your head high, you are Syrian.”

People waved the flag of the Syrian opposition and chanted revolutionary songs and slogans.

Among them were men dressed in black combat suits, bulletproof vests and carrying firearms.

They were members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group.

Some stopped to take photos with civilians. One of them took out a sheet of paper and began to read poetry he had written praising the country.

Sara al-Zobi, a university student who lives in Damascus but originally from Deraa – the city the opposition considers the birthplace of the revolution – said Syrians had gathered to celebrate on Friday and would proceed to build the future. hand in hand.”

“We gathered because we are happy that Syria has been liberated, we are happy that we have been liberated from the prison we lived in,” said another participant, Nour Thi al-Ghina.

Away from the celebrations, grieving families went to search for the bodies of relatives who disappeared over the past decade in the Assad regime’s notorious prisons.

At a morgue in central Damascus, some held photographs of relatives trying to compare them with the bodies lying in bags in front of them.

Some have managed to locate their missing parents, siblings or children, while others left sobbing after finding no clues.

The mortuary was full of corpses transferred from Saydnaya prison, widely known here as a human slaughterhouse.

“All the bodies had clear signs of malnutrition, they were very skinny,” said Aslan Ibrahim, a forensic expert at the hospital.

The journalist’s body showed signs of torture, he said, adding: “His arm was broken, and also his leg, and he also had a lot of bruises.”

Key sites of the extensive network of intelligence agencies that for decades attempted to brutally crush opposition movements can be found along the same central streets of the Syrian capital.

In the basement of the state security headquarters, in the city’s Kafr Sousa district, are row after row of small cells, each just two meters by one meter and protected by thick steel doors.

Inside, dark stains mark the dirty walls. Detainees could remain in these cells for months while they are interrogated and tortured.

They are just below street level, on a busy road where thousands of ordinary Syrians passed every day, going about their daily lives just a few meters from where their compatriots were being detained and tortured.

A short distance away is the General Intelligence Directorate, another part of Syria’s former network of spy agencies.

There are a lot of records showing how the Assad regime used to control its citizens.

There are row after row of paper files in closets and, in some rooms, stacks of notebooks stacked from floor to ceiling.

Nearby is a computer server room. The floors and walls are pristine black and white data storage units that hum silently.

Power has been cut off in much of Damascus but it appears that this facility was so important that it had its own power supply.