Eyewitness

Syria's tyrant is gone and his regime replaced by a revolution that almost feels civilised

After Bashar al Assad's rule was toppled, crowds have been out in force to explore his secret world.

By Dominic Waghorn, international affairs editor in Damascus

Monday 9 December 2024 22:28, UK

The atmosphere is elated but also a little edgy. There is euphoria at the events of the last few days. But there's nervousness too.

The soundtrack to the Damascus skyline strikes both notes. The staccato rattle of celebratory gunfire is almost constant.

But so is the menacing sound of Israeli jets and the regular boom of their airstrikes.

That has not deterred the crowds, out in force enjoying their new-found freedom and exploring Assad's secret world.

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They were streaming into the grounds of one of his many palaces, even plucking its forbidden fruit, oranges from well-tended trees.

As she did so one poor woman told us what it made her realise about the Assad regime. "He lived up on high," she said, adding: "We live down here," pointing to the ground.

Inside the palace, they swarmed through ornate rooms lined with intricate wood marquetry, the ceilings adorned with chandeliers.

But most striking of all, every one of the building's windows was made of bulletproof glass.

The Assads appear to have been as paranoid as they were fond of the finer things in life.

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While they lived in luxury, thousands languished in the horrors of Assad's jails.

We found one of their victims on the roof.

He wouldn't tell us his name but showed us the stumps of his fingers he said had been cut off by his torturers, and how they'd treated others brutally.

"They did this with pliers, they did this with pliers, there were people they used to hang with ropes and kill them and there were people they used to put in a crushing machine," he said.

The bodies in the jail were allowed to pile up, he said, until they reached the ceiling before they were taken out and disposed of.

More such horrors will emerge from the Assad gulag no doubt.

But for most today was a moment of joy and relief.

Their hated tyrant has now gone: "We can't explain what we are living now in this historical moment in Syria.

"It is a moment we heard about from our ancestors... we can't explain what we are feeling."

For all the barbarity of the Assad regime, the revolution that's replaced it feels almost civilised. People came to quietly gawp at the palace and take selfies.

There were more raucous scenes later in town, jihadis, rebels and ordinary Syrians mingled, some letting off volleys of live ammunition into the evening skies.

There are no signs of authority in the city, just young rebel fighters on travel intersections.

But for now calm prevails while Syrians absorb these momentous events.

Syria's tyrant is gone and his regime replaced by a revolution that almost feels civilised

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