The first commercial flight since the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad took off from Damascus airport on Wednesday, offering Syrians a glimmer of hope after years of war and decades of oppression.
Assad fled Syria following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.
He left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, and the collapse of his rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond.
The country’s new rulers have sought to keep its institutions going and, on Wednesday, 43 people were aboard the flight from Damascus to Aleppo, the first since Assad was toppled and fled to Russia.
Earlier this week, airport staff painted the three-star independence flag on planes, a symbol of the 2011 uprising now adopted by the transitional authorities.
In the terminal, the new flag also replaced the one linked to Assad’s era.
The joy sparked by Assad’s departure has not put an end to the woes of a country wracked by years of civil war and which has become heavily dependent on aid.
Rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist organisation by several Western governments, HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric by assuring protection for the country’s many religious and ethnic minorities.
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