The leader of Syrian rebels who overthrew the regime of longtime President Bashar Assad at the weekend called on Syrians to take to the streets to celebrate the “victory of the blessed revolution”.
TASR reports according to a report by the AFP agency and the Guardian newspaper.
In a video on the Telegram social network, the rebel leader called on Syrians to “take to the streets and show their joy.” The leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, Abu Muhammad Jawlani, now uses his real name, Ahmad Hussein Shara.
For Muslims, Friday is a holy day (similar to Sunday for Christians) when believers gather for Friday prayer. In the early stages of the Syrian revolution in 2011, it was after Friday prayers that the protesters of the time regularly gathered.
Shara himself will participate in the prayer in the most important Islamic temple of Damascus, the Umayyad Mosque, on Friday. According to AFP, thousands of people are already gathering in front of the mosque. Many of them are holding the alternative flag of Syria, which the rebels have been using since 2011. The so-called the flag of the Syrian revolution is composed of a horizontal tricolor of green, white and black. In the middle of the white stripe are three five-pointed red stars.
The regime of President Bashar Assad used a red, white and black horizontal tricolor flag with two green five-pointed stars on the white stripe.
