Syrians Cheer End of Assad Family Rule with Gunfire, Mass Street Rallies

The end of the Assad family’s brutal 50-plus years of rule over Syria has been celebrated on the streets of the capital Damascus with gunfire, jubilation, and wild street rallies.

AP reports joyful crowds thronged central squares in Damascus, waving the Syrian revolutionary flag in scenes that recalled the early days of the Arab Spring uprising, before a brutal crackdown and the rise of a bloody insurgency plunged the country into a nearly 14-year civil war.

Others gleefully ransacked the presidential palace and the Assad family residence after President Bashar Assad and other top officials vanished, their whereabouts unknown.

Russia, a close ally, said Assad left the country after negotiations with rebel groups and had given instructions to transfer power peacefully.

Syrians pose with a vandalized statue of Hafez al-Assad, father of Bashar al-Assad, in Umayyad Square on December 8, 2024 in Damascus, Syria. Rebel forces in Syria claimed that they had retaken the capital from longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was reported to have fled the country. Syria has been mired in a multi-party civil war since 2011, amid the Arab Spring uprisings. (Photo by Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)

Syrians in the capital Damascus celebrate as sixty-one years of Baath Party rule in Syria collapses on Sunday when, the capital fell out of the hands of regime control on December 8, 2024. (Mohammed Nammoor/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Syrians in the capital Damascus gather at Umayyad Square to celebrate as 61 years of Baath Party rule in Syria collapses on Sunday when, the capital fell out of the hands of regime control on December 8, 2024. (Izettin Kasim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a former al-Qaida commander who cut ties with the group years ago and says he embraces pluralism and religious tolerance, leads the biggest rebel faction and is poised to chart the country’s future direction.

As Joel Pollak of Breitbart News reported, the sudden collapse of the Assad regime, dating back over half a century to the rule of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, has rocked the Middle East and could mean the Iranian regime, a Syrian ally, is in danger.

Assad was one of the most notorious tyrants in the world, one who used chemical weapons against his own people.

His regime nearly fell in the civil war that erupted during the Arab Spring in 2011, but he was shored up by Russian and Iranian forces.

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