was applauded by a crowd in the Syrian capital, Damascus, this Sunday (8), after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.
Reuters confirmed the location as the entrance to the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, due to the building’s features, including arches and a palm tree, which match satellite images and records of the site.
The date was verified through a televised statement from Syrian rebels, released earlier on Sunday, stating that they had taken control of Damascus.
In a statement read on Syrian state TV, after rebel forces took over the city, the leader stated that there is no room for retreat and that the group is determined to continue the path started in 2011, during the Arab Spring.
“The future is ours,” read al-Golani’s statement.
the Arab Spring in 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad suppressed a pro-democracy uprising.
The country was plunged into full-scale conflict when a rebel force was formed, known as the Free Syrian Army, to fight government troops.
Furthermore, the Islamic State, a terrorist group, also managed to gain a foothold in the country and came to control 70% of Syrian territory.
Fighting has escalated as other regional actors and world powers – from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia – have joined in, escalating the country’s war into what some observers have described as a “proxy war”.
Russia has allied with Bashar al-Assad’s government to combat the Islamic State and rebels, while the United States has led an international coalition to repel the terrorist group.
After a ceasefire agreement in 2020, the conflict remained largely “dormant”, with minor clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime.
More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the UN, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.
