'You couldn't imagine a day without Assad - it's a special moment'

SYRIANS IN CITY CELEBRATE FALL OF BRUTAL REGIME

- KIT ROBERTS

AFTER more than 50 years of brutal rule by one family, Manchester's Syrian community have gathered to celebrate the fall of former Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad.

Bashar, and his father Hafez before him, ruled Syria with an iron fist, killing hundreds of thousands of people, including imprisoning and torturing people without charge and using chemical weapons on civilians.

Now, following a campaign by opposition forces Assad's government has completely collapsed in a matter of weeks. Opposition forces including the group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the 'Committee for the Liberation of the Levant, first took Syrian second city Aleppo then the cities of Hama and Homs, before reaching the capital Damascus on Sunday.

While Syria's future remains uncertain, Assad's defeat has been met with an outpouring of joy from Manchester's Syrian community and the Syrian diaspora all over the world. Hundreds of people gathered in St Peter's Square waving the three-starred flag of the Syrian opposition.

Among them was Mohammed Zain Alfaisal, who told the Manchester Evening News how he has not missed one moment of Assad's defeat.