Syrians poured into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire on Sunday after a stunning rebel advance reached the capital, putting an end to the Assad family's 50 years of iron rule.
ABDULRAHMAN SHAHEEN and ABBY SEWELL, Associated PressJames Longman has more on the resignation of Syria n President Bashar Assad . Syria ns poured into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire on Sunday after a stunning rebel advance reached the capital, ending the Assad family's 50 years of iron rule but raising questions about the future of the country and the wider region.
Syrian state television broadcast a video statement early Sunday by a group of rebels saying that Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been released. They called on people to preserve the institutions of "the free Syrian state." The rebels later announced a curfew in Damascus from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m.
"I cannot express my happiness," said Bassam Masr. "But this happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where is he. I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years." A statement from the Alawite sect - to which Assad belongs and which has formed the core of his base - called on young Syrians to be "calm, rational and prudent and not to be dragged into what tears apart the unity of our country."
Anwar Gargash said Assad's destination at this point is a "footnote in history," comparing it to the long exile of German Kaiser Wilhelm II after World War I.
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