Rebels declare Damascus "liberated" and political prisoners freed

Rebel fighters declared the Syrian capital of Damascus "liberated" in a televised statement broadcast on state television on Sunday.

"Damascus has been liberated and the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has been overthrown and the oppressed prisoners in the regime's prisons have been freed," a spokesman said, reading from a statement surrounded by roughly a dozen other rebels.

"We ask people and fighters to protect all properties in Free Syria... long live free Syria for all Syrians of all sects," he added.

Rebels moved to take over state media offices early Sunday morning after entering Damascus.

As for prisons, Syrian rebels earlier claimed to have taken control of the notorious Saydnaya Military Prison north of Damascus, according to a statement on Sunday.

It is not known how many other prisons in the capital it is about.

Amnesty International called Saydnaya a "slaughterhouse of people" in a 2017 report after extensively documenting mass hangings there.

A report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in July 2023 highlighted "persistent and systematic patterns of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including enforced disappearances" inside Syrian detention facilities, including Saydnaya. /Telegraph/