Opposition fighters declare Syria’s capital Damascus ‘liberated’

People celebrate with anti-government fighters at Umayyad Square in Damascus following a lightning offensive that forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee the capital city [Louai Beshara/AFP]

DAMASCUS (Syria), December 8 — Opposition fighters have declared that the country’s capital Damascus has been “liberated”, hours after announcing that President Bashar al-Assad has fled the city to an unknown destination.

In a statement broadcast live on Syrian national television on Sunday, a group of fighters said the “tyrant Assad has been toppled” and that all prisoners have been freed from a major prison facility in Damascus.

 “We wish all our fighters and citizens preserve and maintain the property of the state of Syria,” a leader of the group said.

Exclusive footage captured by Al Jazeera showed the opposition fighters entering the presidential palace in Damascus.

The armed opposition also shared a video that it says was taken by its fighters from the strategic Mezzeh Air Base in Damascus. The base played a major role in launching government rocket attacks and air raids against opposition-held territory.

Earlier on Sunday, fighters entered the heart of the capital announcing that a “new era” free of revenge, inviting Syrians overseas to return.

Hadi al-Bahra, who heads the Syrian political opposition coalition overseas, declared Damascus “free of al-Assad” and congratulated the Syrian people.

In a statement, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said he remains in his home, willing to cooperate with the opposition, adding that he wants to ensure public institutions continue to function.

At the same time, Abu Mohamed al-Julani, head of main fighting group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has ordered opposition fighters to not attack any public institutions and services.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, who is reporting from neighbouring Amman, Jordan, described the latest development in Syria as “seismic.”

“The fall of the Assad regime is the end of an era in the Middle East, and it will have big news implications across the region,” she said.

Celebrations of freedom

Witnesses report jubilation in Damascus, with chants of “Freedom! Freedom!” as Syrians celebrate an end to more than 50 years of rule by Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez before him.

Omar Horanieh, a resident of Damascus, told Al Jazeera that before opposition fighters entered the city, he heard loud blasts and sounds of shooting.

He said that once the fighters entered the city, “everyone was shouting God is the greatest.”

Videos posted online also showed residents taking down images of the president.

Celebrations were also reported in the city of Latakia as well as along the border with Lebanon.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, who is reporting from the Lebanese side of the border, said that while “a lot of uncertainties lie ahead”, Syrians are looking forward to “return to their homes.”

“It is about returning to their families, whom they have been separated for such a long time,” she said.

Meanwhile in the opposition stronghold of Aleppo, residents toppled over a statue of the late president Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian opposition groups’ Administration of Military Affairs also said that its forces are advancing in the western Deir Az Zor countryside.

Fighters released the prisoners held in Sednaya Prison north of Damascus, as they have done in other cities they have taken during their lightning advance over the past 10 days or so.

Soldiers are reported to have dropped their weapons in the face of the advancing rebel fighters and, early on Sunday morning, the army command confirmed that al-Assad’s rule was done, Reuters reported.

The same scenes of celebration had been seen only hours before as the fighters entered and took control of the city of Homs, two hours drive north of Damascus, with little to no resistance.

Homs‘s strategic location meant that once the rebel fighters controlled it, they had severed the connection between the capital and al-Assad’s coastal strongholds of Latakia and Tartus.A