Rebels free prisoners from Assad’s dungeons: Jubilations in Damascus streets

DAMASCUS, Syria. Bashar Barhoum, a 63-year-old writer, woke up in his dim prison cell on Sunday morning, bracing for what he thought would be his final day. Sentenced to execution after seven months in one of former President Bashar Assad’s notorious prisons, he was prepared to meet his fate. Instead, a different kind of knock came at his door.

The men who entered were not from Assad’s feared security forces but insurgents who had come to free him. In just ten days, Syrian rebels had swept across the country, toppling the Assad regime’s 50-year rule and storming prisons to liberate political prisoners and the tens of thousands who had vanished during Syria’s brutal conflict since 2011.

“I haven’t seen the sun until today,” Barhoum told the Associated Press, as he wandered in disbelief through the streets of Damascus. “Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, He gave me a new lease of life.”

Barhoum’s first mission was to find a way to inform his wife and daughters that he was alive. His personal belongings, including his cellphone, had vanished from the prison.

Scenes of Celebration and Chaos

Videos circulating on social media captured the emotional scenes of freedom. Dozens of barefoot prisoners, some barely clothed, celebrated as they ran out of the prisons. One jubilant man exclaimed upon hearing the news, “The government has fallen!”

North of Damascus, in the infamous Saydnaya military prison, detainees—many of them women with their children—screamed as rebels broke open cell doors. Known as the “human slaughterhouse,” Saydnaya has been described by Amnesty International as the site of mass executions, with estimates of up to 13,000 people killed between 2011 and 2016.

“Don’t be afraid … Bashar Assad has fallen! Why are you afraid?” a rebel urged the detainees, ushering streams of women out of their cramped cells.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that insurgents had freed tens of thousands of detainees across cities, including Aleppo, Homs, Hama, and Damascus.

A Legacy of Fear and Torture

Syria’s prisons under Assad were infamous for systematic torture, starvation, and secret executions. In 2013, a military defector known as “Caesar” smuggled over 53,000 photographs documenting the appalling conditions inside Syria’s detention facilities.

“Syria’s prisons didn’t just isolate opponents; they were tools to instill fear,” said Lina Khatib, a Middle East expert from Chatham House. “Assad nurtured this culture of fear to maintain control and crush political dissent.”

Among the freed, Omar Alshogre, a survivor of three years of relentless torture, watched the scenes unfold from his home abroad. “A hundred democracies did nothing to help them, but now a few military groups have brought this moment of liberation,” said Alshogre, now a human rights advocate in Sweden and the U.S.

Families Seek Missing Loved Ones

For many families, the celebrations were tempered with anguish. Crowds gathered outside prisons, desperate to find their loved ones. Bassam Masri, whose son has been missing for 13 years, said, “This happiness will not be complete until I see my son out of prison and know where he is.”

Heba, another Syrian seeking answers, has spent years searching for her brother and brother-in-law, who were detained in 2011. “They took away so many of us,” she said. “We know nothing about them … They burned our hearts.”

Hope Amid Uncertainty

While rebels struggle to maintain order in the newly liberated Damascus, the country faces a daunting path ahead. Families of the disappeared cling to hope as they await word on their loved ones, and Syrians grapple with the enormity of rebuilding their lives after years of oppression.

As one prisoner exclaimed upon his release, “The sun has risen for us again.” For Syrians, the road to healing begins, even as they reckon with the scars of the past.

With reports from Associated Press.