A week after the dramatic ousting of Bashar al-Assad, Syria is beginning to confront the devastating aftermath of over five decades of Assad family rule.
Calm is slowly returning to Damascus, with children cautiously resuming classes on Sunday for the first time since Assad fled the country.
“The school has asked us to send middle and upper pupils back to class,” said Raghida Ghosn, a mother of three. “The younger ones will return in two days,” she told reporters.
While attendance remains low, with only 30% of students returning so far, officials are optimistic the numbers will rise.
Newspot had reported that Assad fled last weekend following an 11-day rebel offensive led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS.
His departure ends 13 years of civil war sparked by his regime’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011, leaving over 500,000 dead and displacing millions.
In the wake of Assad’s fall, harrowing details of abuses under his rule are emerging. Former journalist Mohammed Darwish revisited the notorious Palestine Branch prison, where he endured daily interrogations during a 120-day imprisonment in 2018.
“I was interrogated every day, morning and night,” he recalled. Such accounts are fueling calls for accountability as Syrians reckon with the brutal legacy of Assad’s regime.
UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen arrived in Damascus on Sunday, though his agenda remains undisclosed. Meanwhile, international diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, are urging a peaceful transition.
A joint statement from Western, Arab, and Turkish officials called for a Syrian-led effort to establish a “non-sectarian and representative government” with full respect for human rights.
A Qatari delegation is expected to meet Syria’s transitional leaders to discuss aid and reopening its embassy, signalling cautious international engagement.
The HTS, now in control of Damascus, has faced scrutiny due to its origins as Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda while its leadership insists on protecting the rights of all Syrians, including minorities, concerns persist about its ability to govern inclusively.
In an effort to signal normalcy, Christian church services resumed on Sunday, and businesses selling alcohol tentatively reopened. Rebels have reportedly assured locals they can “work and live life as before.”
Assad’s fall has shifted regional dynamics, particularly for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group. Its leader, Naim Qassem, acknowledged that the group could no longer receive military supplies through Syria and expressed hopes the new Syrian rulers would not normalize relations with Israel.
Meanwhile, tensions escalated as Israel conducted fresh airstrikes near Damascus on Sunday, targeting Syrian army tunnels and arms depots. The strikes followed 60 similar attacks across Syria on Saturday.
HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, warned that Israel’s actions risked “a new unjustified escalation” but stated Syria’s exhaustion after years of conflict, calling for a focus on rebuilding rather than renewed warfare.
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