Syria rebels burn tomb of Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez happymamay

Syrian opposition fighters destroyed the grave of the late President Hafez al-Assad, father of ousted President Bashar, in the family’s hometown.

Video clips verified by the BBC showed armed men chanting as they walked around the burning shrine in Qardaha, northwest of the coastal region of Latakia.

The rebels, led by the Islamic group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, swept across Syria in a lightning attack that toppled the Assad family’s 54-year rule. Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, where he and his family obtained asylum.

In other major developments:

Statues and posters of the late President Hafez and his son Bashar have been pulled down across the country amid cheers from Syrians celebrating the end of their rule.

In 2011, Bashar al-Assad brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising, sparking a devastating civil war in which more than half a million people were killed and another 12 million forced to flee their homes.

Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria mercilessly from 1971 until his death in 2000, when power was handed over to his son.

He was born and raised in an Alawite family, a branch of Shiite Islam and a religious minority in Syria, whose main population center is in Latakia Governorate near the Mediterranean coast near the border with Turkey.

Many Alawites – who make up about 10% of the country’s population – were loyal supporters of Assad during their long stay in power.

Some of them now fear they may be targeted by the victorious rebels.

On Monday, a rebel delegation including members of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and another Sunni group, the Free Syrian Army, met with Qardaha sheikhs and received their support, according to Reuters news agency.

The opposition delegation signed a document that Reuters reported affirmed the religious and cultural diversity in Syria.

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and its allied opposition factions took control of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Sunday after years of civil war.

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Muhammad al-Julani, who has now begun using his real name, Ahmed al-Shara, is a former jihadist who severed ties with al-Qaeda in 2016. He has recently pledged tolerance toward various religious groups and communities.

The UN envoy to Syria said opposition fighters must turn their “good messages” into practice on the ground.

Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State said that Washington would recognize and fully support the future Syrian government as long as it emerges from an inclusive and credible process that respects minorities.

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham appointed a transitional government headed by Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the northwest, until March 2025.

Al-Bashir He chaired a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday It was attended by members of his new government and the previous Assad government to discuss the transfer of ministerial portfolios and institutions.

He said it was time for people to “enjoy stability and calm” after the end of the Assad regime.

In Damascus, BBC reporters noticed signs that life was starting to return to normal, with people returning to work and shops reopening.

Joud Insani, who works in a chocolate shop in the Syrian capital, told the BBC that she was able to do so Open “without fear”, Adding that she has noticed a welcome change in the types of customers who visit her.

“We reopened without fear because the people we serve are no longer scary at all,” she said.

“Previously, everyone who came to buy from us was either a general or a minister loyal to the Assad regime. Now, thank God, this is no longer the case.”

In one of the famous food and vegetable markets in Damascus, one of the sellers tells the BBC: “We now have oxygen in the air.” While another man noted that there is “a celebration going on from now on.”

In the Jobar neighborhood, emotional meetings are taking place in the old opposition stronghold, more than 90% of which was destroyed.

Munawar Al-Qahf and her husband, Mohammed, returned for the first time in 12 years. The couple cried when they saw their two-storey house, which had turned into a pile of concrete boulders around one arched wall.

“This is the first time we dare to return,” Muhammad said. “I feel as if I’ve been shattered into pieces.”