Waiting a long time for this: Damascus wakes up in rebel hands

Syria's capital woke up Sunday to chanting, cheering and gunfire in celebration of the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, after rebels said they entered the city and toppled the longtime ruler.

"I can't believe I'm living this moment," tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone from the capital's Ummayad Square, where witnesses said dozens of people had gathered to celebrate.

"We've been waiting a long time for this day," said Batha, as Islamist-led rebels and a war monitor declared the end of decades of Assad family rule amid 13 years of grinding civil war.

"We are starting a new history for Syria," Batha added.

At the dawn call to prayer, some mosques were broadcasting religious chants usually reserved for festive occasions, while also urging residents to stay home with the city engulfed in uncertainty just hours into the rebels' takeover.

Rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions have pressed a lightning offensive since November 27, sweeping swathes of the country from government control, including major cities Aleppo, Hama and Homs and entering the capital Damascus early Sunday.

In extraordinary images, rebel fighters announced on state television that they had toppled "tyrant" Assad, who war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said had "fled".

From the garden of a shopping centre, dozens of Damascenes were celebrating, chanting "Allahu akbar", or God is greatest, and standing on a smashed statue of Assad's father Hafez that they had torn down, AFP footage showed.

Gunmen spread out through some Damascus streets, shooting into the air and chanting, "Syria is ours and not the Assad family's."

- 'Criminal' -

Local residents told AFP that dozens of soldiers, from the Assad government's forces, had hastily taken off their military uniforms and left the Ummayad Square headquarters.

State television and radio buildings were empty, a former employee said.

Five strong explosions were heard in the capital early Sunday, with a fleeing soldier, requesting anonymity, saying it was probably artillery or blasts from a munitions depot.

"Our direct superior told us to leave and go home, so we knew it was over," he told AFP.

In Damascus's picturesque Old City, home to a small Christian community, young people in the streets were chanting "Syrian people are one", a message of reassurance to minority groups in the multi-confessional country.

Elsewhere, in the Shaghur neighbourhood, women ululated from balconies, some throwing rice on passing fighters who were shooting into the air.

Ilham Basatina, 50, said she couldn't believe that "after today", she would not longer have to "be afraid".

"There is huge happiness today, and it won't be complete until the criminal has been held to account," she said from her balcony, referring to Assad.

- 'Culture of fear' -

In the street, fighters in fatigues were kissing the ground, praying or taking photos as gunfire rang out.

Many Syrian media workers, government employees and members of parliament quickly changed their profile pictures on social media, replacing them with the opposition flag.

Waddah Abd Rabbo, editor in chief of pro-government online daily Al-Watan, wrote on social media: "Syrian media and media workers are not guilty. They, and we with them, were only carrying out instructions and publishing the news they sent us."

Assad's Baath party ruled with an iron fist, heavily curtailing freedoms including freedom of press, with only state media or outlets close to the government permitted to operate.

Famous Syrian actor Ayman Zeidan, who hadn't publicly criticised the Assad rule before, wrote on Facebook: "How delusional I was. Perhaps we were prisoners of a culture of fear, or maybe we feared change because we imagined it would lead to blood and chaos."

"But here we are, entering a new phase with men who impressed us with their nobility... and the desire to restore the unity of the Syrian people," he added.