Throngs of Syrians celebrate New Year in a Damascus freed from Assad

NEWS WIRES

31 December 2024 at 9:23 pm·1-min read

People celebrate the New Year near Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria.

Revolutionary songs rang out in downtown Damascus overnight Tuesday as Syrians marked the first new year's celebration without an Assad in power for more than 50 years. Umayyad Square in the heart of the Syrian capital was packed with revellers enjoying the fireworks as gunshots resounded from Mount Qasioun overlooking the city.

Umayyad Square in Damascus hummed to the throngs of people brandishing "revolution" flags as Syria saw in the new year with hope following 13 years of civil war.

Gunshots rang out from Mount Qasioun overlooking the capital where hundreds of people gazed up at fireworks, an AFP reporter at the square saw.

It was the first new year's celebration without an Assad in power for more than 50 years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December.

"Long live Syria, Assad has fallen," shouted some children.

"We did not expect such a miracle to happen, today the Syrians have found their smile again," Layane el Hijazi, a 22-year-old agricultural engineering student, told AFP from Umayyad Square.

"We were able to obtain our rights, we can now talk. I am letting off steam these last three weeks and tonight by bringing out everything I had buried," she said.

Despite the revelry, soldiers patrolled the streets of Damascus less than a month after Assad's rapid demise.

(AFP)

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