Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is said to have fled Damascus to an unknown destination as opposition fighters entered the capital and people poured out onto the streets and public squares in celebration.

Fighters have entered the heart of Damascus and declared a “new era” free of revenge, inviting Syrians overseas to return.

Hadi al-Bahra, who heads the Syrian political opposition coalition overseas, declared Damascus “free of al-Assad” and congratulated the Syrian people.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali says he remains in his home, willing to cooperate with the opposition, and wants to ensure public institutions continue to function.

At the same time, Abu Mohamed al-Julani, head of main fighting group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has ordered opposition fighters to not attack any public institutions and services.

Celebrations of freedom

Witnesses report jubilation in Damascus, with chants of “Freedom! Freedom!” as Syrians celebrate an end to more than 50 years of rule by Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez before him.

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Fighters released the prisoners held in Sednaya Prison north of Damascus, as they have done in other cities they have taken during their lightning advance over the past 10 days or so.

Soldiers are reported to have dropped their weapons in the face of the advancing rebel fighters and, early on Sunday morning, the army command confirmed that al-Assad’s rule was done, Reuters reported.

The same scenes of celebration had been seen only hours before as the fighters entered and took control of the city of Homs, two hours drive north of Damascus, with little to no resistance.

Homs’s strategic location meant that once the rebel fighters controlled it, they had severed the connection between the capital and al-Assad’s coastal strongholds of Lattakia and Tartus.