What happened in Syria? A look back at the historic week that toppled Assad

DAMASCUS, Syria — For more than a decade, Syria was synonymous with war, brutality and a family dynasty that inflicted that violence on its own people.

Then, in the relative blink of an eye this week, everything changed.

It was only on Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad fled the country as rebels entered Damascus. Syrians have since torn down statues of Assad and ripped away the veil from his murderous regime.

Thousands have been freed from tortured prisons, while thousands more have been left searching for their loved ones at the notorious sites – the desperate search for missing US journalist Austin Tice has discovered another American, a pilgrim, in one of many remarkable developments.

Meanwhile, questions loom over the future of Syria, guided by a former al-Qaeda branch that says it has shown moderation.

The United States warns that the Islamic State terror group may seek to regroup as Israel strikes and seizes territory in what it sees as a temporary defensive action.

But for the moment at least, the primary emotion for many Syrians is one of incredulous joy.

“I have to dream — it’s the biggest dream of my life and I don’t want to wake up,” Mohammed Al-Owir, 63, told NBC News in Damascus’ Umayyad Square, which has become a scene of flags floating. , car horns and celebratory gunshots.

Imprisoned for nine years by Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, he described living “in constant fear, never being able to lift his head” under the family’s 50-year dynasty.

Her half-smile evoking hope, pain and worry, Al-Owir looked on with her granddaughter, Lina, a 20-month-old with hair in a bun and sparkly pink sneakers.

“I never want to leave this place again,” he said. “I want to stay here with the Syrian people and watch them dance and sing, contemplate their happiness, their laughter and their joy. »

For 11 days, the rebels had advanced rapidly from their stronghold of Idlib towards the capital, Damascus. They encountered little resistance from regime forces or their Russian and Iranian backers. And just like that on Sunday, state television announced that Assad had been overthrown, and it was later confirmed that he had fled to Moscow.

The rebels were led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, considered a terrorist group in the United States and elsewhere. Its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, declared victory at the city’s Umayyad mosque later in the day.

Removing Assad offers “real promise, but also danger,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, summarizing a view shared by many in the international community.

“This is a moment of political opportunity for Syria, but the risk of failure is also great,” said Burcu Ozcelik, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London. “Syria risks falling into a new chapter of instability,” she added. “There are very encouraging early signs, but it is important to recognize the challenges ahead. »

Some of this uncertainty centers on al-Jolani.

The former al-Qaeda fighter says he has moderated his extremist views, promising that Syria will be inclusive of its myriad religions and ethnic groups. He appointed an interim prime minister who pledged to guarantee the rights of all and root out the corruption that may have engulfed the Syrian bureaucracy.

Not everyone is convinced.

“We are leaving Syria because we are Shiites,” said Ammar Shahbander, 32, a philosophy professor fleeing Aleppo for Syria’s neighboring Lebanon.

About 74% of Syrians are Sunni, like HTS, while 13% are Shia and other Muslim faiths.

Shahbander calls HTS “terrorists” and believes that Syria will be “in chaos for one, two or three months”, and that he will “stay away for now”.

Others not only stay but search frantically.

After the rebels opened the prisons, families flocked to the Sednaya military prison, nicknamed the “human slaughterhouse.” Armed with pickaxes and other tools, they hoped to find a dungeon containing missing loved ones.

On Tuesday, NBC News witnessed these desperate, so far fruitless searches, as well as the horrors of the prison itself: squalid cells, bloody nooses and a mechanical press used to crush inmates. A stark contrast occurred the next day when journalists were given access to Assad’s luxurious abandoned palace.

Washington thinks above all of Tice, 42, whose family has found hope since the fall of Assad. Another American national, Travis Timmerman, was discovered Thursday after going missing earlier this year.

Washington also fears that ISIS is “looking to regroup,” Blinken said the same day as the United States bombed what it said were 75 ISIS targets.

It is not the only country to intervene.

Israel has bombed arsenals and crossed the Syrian border, he says, to temporarily distance itself from its destabilized neighbor. He ordered his troops to winter there on Friday, a move already having been condemned by the United Nations and others fearing a land grab.

Turkey has renewed attacks on Kurdish forces, whom it considers terrorists but who are also key partners of the United States. Russia still has troops and bases in the country, whose future is uncertain.

The challenges are not lost on Al-Owir. But he said that “whatever life is like in the future, it will be better than the hell that has tormented us.”

He turns to his granddaughter, whose first memories will be of this remarkable time.

“She deserves to live in peace and happiness. I hope she will never witness what we had to go through,” he said before bursting into tears.

Ammar Cheikh Omar and Charlene Gubash reported from Damascus, and Alexander Smith from London.