DAMASCUS:

1000s of prisoners have been freed from Sednaya prison, now flooding the streets, an monumental moment.

For many, the frantic search begins, desperate to know if their loved ones are among the living or the lost.

Either way, the "human slaughterhouse" is no more.

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— Rami Jarrah (@ramijarrah.bsky.social) 8 December 2024 at 01:54

'The worst place on earth': inside Assad's brutal Saydnaya prison | Architecture | The Guardian

Should bomb this place to the ground as a symbolic act.

Was joking about Damascus falling by tomorrow but...

Reuters, citing senior Syrian officials: Bashar al-Assad left Damascus to an unknown destination

Dude has apparently fled like 20 times today alone, I'm convinced nobody knows where the fuck he is.

Celebrations in Damascus

The Reuters news agency, citing eyewitnesses, is reporting that thousands of people in cars and on foot are congregating in central Damascus, chanting “Freedom”.

Videos posted online, verified by Al Jazeera, shows several people in the Ummayad Square, standing on an abandoned military tank, and singing in celebration.

#Syria: regime soldiers have abandoned the Umayyad Square in the center of #Damascus.

Residents are taking over the streets. pic.twitter.com/LHCNbqTPz1

— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) December 8, 2024

Syrian opposition declares ‘start of new era’

The Syrian armed opposition says the end of al-Assad’s rule marks a new chapter in Syria’s history.

“After 50 years of oppression under Baathist rule and 13 years of criminality, tyranny and displacement, and after a long struggle, confronting all sorts of occupation forces, we declare today, December 8, 2024, the end of that dark era and the start of a new era for Syria,” the rebels said in a statement.

The Syrian rebels say they have captured the capital, Damascus, and announced the fall of al-Assad’s government. “The tyrant Bashar al-Assad has fled,” the armed opposition said in a statement.

Of course this is just the beginning, such a fractured country

Syrian soldiers continue to pour into Iraq

Soldiers from al-Assad’s army are continuing to flee into Iraq through the al-Qaim border crossing, according to footage shared online.

One video, posted by the Anbar Media Centre, shows soldiers on tanks and military vehicles on the roads of al-Qaim. The outlet said “thousands” of troops had entered Iraq after “fleeing the battles taking place in their country”.

Another video, verified by Al Jazeera, shows Iraqis handing out food to the “exhausted” troops.

Earlier on Saturday, the mayor of al-Qaim said about 2,000 Syrian troops had crossed the border into Iraq to seek refuge.

إلى الان توافد القوات السورية الجيش النظامي إلى داخل الأراضي العراقية من خلال معبر القائم الحدودي واهالي مدينة القائم يقدمون الطعام والمعونات إلى الجنود المنهكين فمنهم يقص انه مشى سيرا على الأقدام حوالي ٣٠ كيلو وأكثر . pic.twitter.com/rRgiJKi0I4

— Azhar Al-Jumaili (@AzharJumaili) December 7, 2024

Wow. This came out of nowhere and happened really fast. Sounds like the new regime has to be pretty terrible to be worse than al-Assad, which is promising - but we'll see.

So it just took 10 days to topple the Assad Regime in Syria, wow.

Meanwhile, the 3 days offensive in Ukraine is past 1000 days now...

Fucking nuts, a brutal and bloody regime of over 10 years toppled in an 11 day offensive all because Hezbollah was decimated and Russia no longer had the power to defend it. Putin's little pet project and poster boy ally for over 10 years has been defeated by a bunch of rebels in such a swift and decisive victory. I hope this provides a morale boost to Ukraine and shows the world just how weak Russia is now.

Now I hope Russia doesn't worm its way into a deal because if they lose the Syrian ports then their African and Middle East plans will be hugely hurt and it will go a long way to making Russian influence in those areas weaker which is objectively a good thing but Assad falling like this is a historic event, I hope things can genuinely improve for Syrians now.