'We have to build our country again and again'

Ali Abi Zaid fled Syria after being imprisoned in Damascus

A Syrian refugee living in Gloucestershire has said people in his home country "just want to live" after the fall of the government there.

Ali Abi Zaid, who now lives in Cheltenham, fled his home country after being imprisoned by the Bashar al-Assad regime in 2012.

The 35-year-old says "everyone" in the Syrian community in the area is happy after the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel factions toppled the government in a matter of days.

He says Syrian people "love life" and must now work to rebuild their country "again and again and again".

Mr Abi Zaid comes from Idlib, a city in the north-west of Syria and claims he was arrested 12 years ago because of where he was from.

"They treated people from Idlib as terrorists", he said.

He was held for "months" in the notorious Sednaya military prison in Damascus and found it unbearable.

"I saw a lot of things. I saw people die at the side of the road," he said.

He was released after winning his case in court.

Syria faces an uncertain future after the fall of the Assad regime

The ordeal was the final straw for Mr Abi Zaid, who fled to Lebanon before he was brought to the UK with the help of the United Nations in 2019.

He left with his family as the civil war in the country claimed thousands of lives and blamed Assad for the suffering of his people.

"We had no freedom. If you said anything [against the Assad regime] they would arrest you," he said.

He said he "knew in his heart" the regime would fall after rebels began claiming cities across the country and he has hope for the future.

He has family in Syria that he has not seen for 14 years and hopes the fall of Assad does not give way to fighting between rival factions.

"We need to stay away from sectarianism. We just want to live," he said.