by International DeskLife in Damascus, the capital of conflict-torn Syria, was gradually returning to normalcy as shops are reopening and people started going to work on Wednesday, three days after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad in the face of former rebels’ fighting.
Broadcaster BBC and CNN reported that people are trying to get back to a new sense of normality.
“We reopened without fear because the people we serve are now not intimidating at all,” a chocolate shop worker was quoted as saying by a BBC correspondent in Damascus.
The salesman said that previously everyone who came to buy chocolate either to represent a general or a minister loyal to the Assad regime.
“Now thank God, that is no longer the case,” says a chocolate shop worker adding that their lives have become better now.
It also reported that public employees were going back to work.
Bashar al-Assad, the authoritarian ruler of Syria, fled to Russia by a private jet on Sunday as his regime fell after a sudden offensive by Islamist rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
His fall brought to an end to the Assad family’s 50-year rule.
The offensive started just 14 days ago, with two major cities falling to the rebels over the weekend. Homs, Syria’s third largest city, was taken on Saturday after just one day of fighting and HTS-led rebels announced on Sunday that they captured the capital Damascus.
The prime minister of Syria’s new transitional government, Mohammed al-Bashir, has said it is time for people to “enjoy stability and calm”.
The former head of the rebel administration in the north-west, was speaking to Al Jazeera after being tasked with governing until March 2025 by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies.
Bashir held a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday attended by members of his new government and those of Assad’s former cabinet to discuss the transfer of portfolios and institutions.
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