The swift fall of Syria's Assad brings moments inconceivable under his iron rule

The swift fall of Syria’s Assad brings moments inconceivable under his iron rule

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Syrian opposition fighters ride in a truck in Talhiya, Idlib province, Syria, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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A Syrian opposition fighter displays badges indicating the ranks of Syrian army officers in Anjara, on the western outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, Thursday Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

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The bodies of Syrian soldiers and allied fighters who were killed in combat lie next to a Syrian army vehicle in Aleppo, Syria, early Saturday Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

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A Syrian opposition fighter takes a picture of a comrade stepping on a portrait of overthrown Syrian President Bashar Assad in Aleppo, early Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian opposition fighters seize ammunition abandoned by the Syrian army in the town of Khan Assubul, Syria, southwest of Aleppo, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian opposition fighters drive by an abandoned Syrian army armoured vehicle on a highway in the outskirts of in Khan Sheikhoun, southwest of Aleppo, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. Syrian opposition insurgency launched a campaign on Wednesday with a two-pronged attack on Aleppo and the countryside around Idlib.(AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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A Syrian opposition fighter tears a painting depicting Syria’s overthrown President Bashar Assad and his late father, Hazef Assad, at Aleppo International Airport in Aleppo, Syria, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Body bags containing adults and children, victims of an airstrike on a camp for internally displaced people near the village of Harbnush, cover the floor of a hospital in Maarat Misreen, north of Idlib, Syria, Monday Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian opposition fighters stand atop a seized Syrian Air Force fighter plane at the Hama military airport, Syria, Friday Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian army armored vehicles are left abandoned on road on the outskirts of Hama, Syria, after opposition insurgents took control of the city, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian opposition fighters drive a motorcycle and an armored vehicle seized from the Syrian army in the town of Maarat al-Numan, south of Idlib, Syria, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

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Colleagues and friends mourn over the body of Syrian photographer Anas Alkharboutli, 32, in Idlib, Syria, Wednesday Dec. 4, 2024. Alkharboutli, who worked for the German news agency DPA, was killed in an airstrike near the city of Hama, the agency said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Army defectors line-up to register with Syrian insurgents in Aleppo, Syria, Thursday Dec. 5, 2024. As insurgents consolidate their hold over Aleppo, they order government soldiers and security agencies to defect, and grant them amnesty via insurgent-issued “protection cards.” (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

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Opposition fighters drive on the streets of Hama after insurgents seize control of the Syrian city, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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A Syrian opposition fighter holds a rocket launcher in front of the provincial government office, where an image of overthrown President Bashar Assad is riddled with bullets, in Hama, Syria, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian opposition fighters stand atop a seized Syrian Air Force fighter plane at the Hama military airport, Syria, Friday Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Residents flee Hama with their belongings and children piled atop a truck, after insurgents take over the Syrian city, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian opposition fighters drive past a damaged government vehicle south of Hama, Syria, on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian opposition fighters remove a government flag from an official building in Salamiyah, east of Hama, Syria, Saturday Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrian opposition fighters drive past a burning armored vehicle south of Hama, Syria, on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Government soldiers and allies are taken into custody by opposition fighters on the road between Homs and Damascus, near Homs, Syria, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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Syrians celebrate the arrival of opposition fighters in Damascus, Syria, Sunday Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

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Syrian opposition fighters celebrate after the government collapses in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

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A man shows old pictures of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad as civilians ransack the private residence of overthrown President Bashar Assad in the Malkeh district of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

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A Syrian opposition fighter sits inside an office in the Presidential Palace after the Syrian government collapses in Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

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Opposition fighters celebrate as they burn down a military court in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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An opposition fighter steps on a broken bust of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus, Syria, Sunday Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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Opposition fighters celebrate in Damascus, Syria, Sunday Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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People ransack the private residence of overthrown Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Malkeh district of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A man tries to remove a chandelier as other people search the ransacked private residence of overthrown President Bashar Assad in the Malkeh district of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A Syrian family poses for photo sitting on a couch in a hall of overthrown President Bashar Assad’s presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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Two men use their flashlights to inspect a corridor of the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Thousands of inmates were released after Bashar Assad’s regime was overthrown on Sunday, and crowds of people entered the prison, known as the “human slaughterhouse,” hoping to find relatives who had been held there. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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A man holds up two ropes tied into nooses in the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Thousands of inmates were released after Bashar Assad’s regime was overthrown on Sunday, and crowds of people entered the prison, known as the “human slaughterhouse,” hoping to find relatives who had been held there. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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Two women whose relatives were imprisoned embrace outside the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. Thousands of inmates were released after Bashar Assad’s regime was overthrown on Sunday, and crowds of people entered the prison, known as the “human slaughterhouse,” hoping to find relatives who had been held there. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

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Syrians celebrate the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in the town of Bar Elias, Lebanon, near the border with Syria, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

It took barely 10 days for Syria’s insurgents to march from their stronghold in the northwest into Damascus and bring an end to the Assad family rule that had gripped the country for half a century. Every step of the way brought moments that would have been unbelievable only days earlier.

Raising their hands and automatic rifles into the air, insurgents rode out of their enclave in Idlib province on Nov. 28. Some wore Islamic extremist emblems on their uniforms, a sign of the jihadi roots of the leading insurgent faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

First to fall was Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, with a swiftness that may have amazed even the fighters. They celebrated by taking photos of each other stomping on a poster of President Bashar Assad in his sunglasses and military uniform. At the airport, they tore down a poster glorifying the ruling family — Bashar; his father and predecessor Hafez Assad; and Bashar’s elder brother Basel, who was supposed to succeed their father but died in a 1994 car crash.

More towns and cities fell like dominoes in the following days, including Hama and Homs. Along the way, Assad’s army melted away. Surrendered soldiers lined up for rebel-issued certificates of amnesty. Advancing rebel fighters passed army trucks and tanks abandoned on the side of the highway.

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There was little fighting. The main response from the government was sporadic airstrikes from Syrian and Russian warplanes. Among the dead was a Syrian photographer, Anas Alkharboutli, who worked for Germany’s DPA news agency. Friends mourned over his body, his press helmet and flak jacket laid on his chest.

Overnight Saturday into early Sunday, the fighters marched unopposed into their greatest prize, the capital, Damascus. Assad and his family fled, ultimately taken in by his ally Russia.

Assad’s regime was deplored by many for its brutality and corruption. Insurgents and civilians celebrated his downfall by waltzing freely into his private residence and ransacking it. One man yanked a chandelier from the ceiling. A fighter posed for a photo behind a gigantic desk surrounded by luxurious furniture of wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl. A family posed in the palace’s grandiose atrium lined with colored marble beneath a giant chandelier.

Others streamed into the biggest symbol of Assad’s police state, Saydnaya Prison, hoping to find relatives who had disappeared years or even decades earlier. One man held up nooses he found — a reminder of the mass executions that rights groups say killed thousands of inmates. Insurgents set fire to a military court building, where rights group say death sentences were churned out after perfunctory trials that often lasted just minutes.

Some insurgents danced in the streets while others posed — cheering — on an army tank. Many waved the flag of the Syrian opposition, green, white and black with three red stars, instead of the Assad-era flag of red, white and black with two green stars.

The insurgent takeover has pushed the country into the unknown. There is potential for more chaos with jihadi militants hoping to seize power and the possibility of conflicts between the many armed factions. But with the end of Assad’s rule, it is a time for celebration.