“I can’t believe I’m living this moment,” tearful Damascus resident Amer Batha told AFP by phone from the capital’s Ummayad Square, where witnesses said dozens of people had gathered to celebrate. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this day,” said Batha, as Islamist-led rebels and a war monitor declared the end of decades of Assad family rule amid 13 years of grinding civil war. “We are starting a new history for Syria,” Batha added.

At the dawn call to prayer, some mosques were broadcasting religious chants usually reserved for festive occasions, while also urging residents to stay home with the city engulfed in uncertainty just hours into the rebels’ takeover. Rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions have pressed a lightning offensive since November 27, sweeping swathes of the country from government control, including major cities Aleppo, Hama and Homs and entering the capital Damascus early Sunday.

In extraordinary images, rebel fighters announced on state television that they had toppled “tyrant” Assad, who war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said had “fled”.

Local residents told AFP that dozens of soldiers, from the Assad government’s forces, had hastily taken off their military uniforms and left the Ummayad Square headquarters. Five strong explosions were heard in the capital early Sunday, with a fleeing soldier, requesting anonymity, saying it was probably artillery or blasts from a munitions depot. “Our direct superior told us to leave and go home, so we knew it was over,” he told AFP.