DAMASCUS, Syria — Hundreds of Syrians poured into the streets and public squares on Saturday to mark 14 years because the nation’s civil conflict started, the primary with out Bashar Assad in energy.
The crowds waved Syrian flags and chanted in celebration of the insurgent victory that ended the Assad household’s five-decade rule in rallies within the capital, Damascus, the nation’s largest metropolis of Aleppo within the north, and Idlib, the place the rebels launched their offensive in November.
“15/3/2025 similar date however we at the moment are victorious,” learn a poster carried by a person at Damascus’ Umayyad Sq., as helicopter gunships dropped flowers on the gathering.
Up till not too long ago, the helicopters have been utilized by forces loyal to Assad to drop barrel bombs on areas held by his opponents. By releasing flowers, the nation’s new authorities wish to ship a message. “Right this moment, helicopters are gifting you hope as a substitute of ache, peace as a substitute of worry,” learn a paper in Arabic tied to a flower that was dropped over Umayyad Sq..
Yaman al-Ali stated he got here to rejoice the victory of “the revolution” that she has backed since 2011. “My feeling, in fact, is extremely, extremely, extremely nice. First, as a result of we’ve overthrown Bashar Assad. After all, we’re demanding his execution, not simply his overthrow.”
“Right this moment, by the grace of God, we’ve come to specific our pleasure in victory,” stated Lamyaa al-Doueish. “That is the primary 12 months, after 14 years, that God has blessed us with victory.”
Syria’s battle began as one of many in style uprisings in opposition to Arab dictators referred to as the 2011 Arab Spring, earlier than Assad crushed the largely peaceable protests and a civil conflict erupted. Half one million folks have been killed and greater than 5 million left the nation as refugees.
In November, rebel teams led by the Islamist Islamic Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, started a floor offensive that inside days captured the nation’s 4 largest cities beginning with Aleppo within the north, then Hama and Homs in central Syria. On Dec. 8, the insurgents marched into Damascus, marking the top of the Assad household’s 54-year rule that was thought-about one of the vital brutal within the area. Assad fled to Russia, his major ally.
The nation’s new authorities led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa have confronted critical obstacles. Simply days earlier than Saturday’s anniversary, clashes between fighters loyal to Assad and forces of the nation’s new rulers sparked the worst violence because the civil conflict, leaving about 1,000 useless, most of them members of Assad’s Alawite minority group.
Earlier this week, the interim authorities signed a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the nation’s northeast, and days later al-Sharaa signed a temporary constitution that leaves Syria underneath Islamist rule whereas promising to guard the rights of all Syrians for 5 years throughout a transitional part.
After Assad’s fall, the overwhelming majority of Syrians nonetheless stay in poverty and Syrian officers and regional nations have been calling on Western nations to carry sanctions imposed greater than a decade in the past.
The US and Europe have been hesitant to carry the sanctions earlier than there’s a clear political transition that’s democratic and inclusive of Syria’s minorities and civil society. On the similar time, Syria desperately wants cash to rebuild after years of conflict. ___
Mroue reported from Beirut.
