Syrians celebrate as government falls in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family

(8 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damascus, Syria - 8 December 2024
1. Opposition fighter firing, USOUND of firing
2. Fighters making victory sign
3. People chanting, UPSOUND (Arabic) “God is the greatest”
4. Various of people on tank chanting
5. People chanting, UPSOUND "A curse on your soul Hafez (Assad)"
6. People hitting Hafez Assad’s statue with shoes
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) name not given:
"It's a feeling of joy after 13 years of pressure and tragedy since we were born. The regime pressured and hurt us, but now we are free, without any fear or oppression, which will be lifted from our hearts. We will return stronger and united, and be the best country, God willing."
8. Man tearing Syrian flag
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) name not given:
"It is a strange feeling of happiness. We did not expect this great surprise—to sleep and wake up to find that the dictator who was slaughtering and killing the people in the name of democracy and freedom, this criminal who oppressed the people for 50 years, (is gone)."
11. Various of fighters celebrating
12. Syrian flag burned on the street
13. Various of Umayyad Square with traffic
14. Fighters on the street
STORYLINE:
People took to the streets of Damascus on Sunday after the government fell in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family.

President Bashar Assad reportedly fled the country after a sudden rebel offensive sprinted across government-held territory and entered the capital in 10 days.

At dawn Sunday, crowds including fighters were celebrating Assad's fall on the streets of Damascus.

Syrian state television aired a video statement by a group of men saying that President Bashar Assad had been overthrown and all detainees in jails had been set free.

Many of the capital’s residents were in disbelief at the speed at which Assad lost his hold on the country after nearly 14 years of civil war.

As daylight broke over Damascus, crowds gathered to pray in the city’s mosques and to celebrate in the squares, chanting “God is great.”

People also chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns.

Soldiers and police officers left their posts and fled, and looters broke into the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense.

Opposition forces had not reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a yearslong siege.

The night before, opposition forces took the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it.

The city stands at an important intersection between Damascus, the capital, and Syria’s coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus — the Syrian leader’s base of support and home to a Russian strategic naval base.

The rebels had already seized the cities of Aleppo and Hama, as well as large parts of the south, in a fast-moving offensive that began Nov. 27.

The advances in the past week were by far the largest in recent years by opposition factions, led by a group that has its origins in al-Qaida and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the United Nations.

In their push to overthrow Assad’s government, the insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, have met little resistance from the Syrian army.

HTS controls much of northwest Syria and in 2017 set up a “salvation government” to run day-to-day affairs in the region.

AP video shot by Abdulrahman Shaheen

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