Francesca Gillett
Live page editor

Thousands of Syrians have taken to the streets of cities across the country to celebrate the downfall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on what's being called Victory Day.

Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who has now started using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, had urged Syrians "to go to the streets to express their joy" to mark "the blessed revolution".

But as well as the celebrations, there are concerns for the future, as our correspondent Hugo Bachega in Aleppo points out.

Our correspondents have written a piece from Damascus on the mood there, and our latest story brings you up to speed on the latest developments.

We're now pausing our coverage. Today's page was edited by Rob Corp, Malu Cursino and me. It was written by Alex Smith and Adam Goldsmith in London, with our correspondents in Damascus and Aleppo in Syria.

Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

Image source, Dina Kash

Warning: This post contains some distressing details

I've been speaking to 44-year-old Dina Kash about the six months she spent in the women’s prison at Mezzeh air base in Damascus in 2013, during the height of the Assad regime.

Her husband Ammar Daraa supported the opposition.

Dina moved to the US several weeks ago, where she is a witness in an FBI war crimes indictment against two top Syrian military officials.

On the day Syrian intelligence arrested Dina at her home, she turned to her four-year-old daughter and said: "I am going to China and will bring you a big present when I get back."

When she arrived at the Mezzeh prison she says "they wrote a number on my arm and said ‘you only have this number, you have no name'."

Dina shared a tiny cell with 33 people.

"I was beaten and punched, and had four teeth knocked out," she says. "Most women were tortured with electric shocks. When they came back to the cell after being interrogated, they could not stand on their feet, they had burns on their skin... a lot of blood and blue spots on their body.”

Prisoners were not allowed to talk, she tells me, but they tried to comfort each other in whispers.

The guards taunted the women. "They would come in with blood on their shoes and say 'we have just been torturing your men'."

We'll soon be pausing our Syria live coverage, but before we go here are some of the main developments we've been following:

• Rallies were held across Syria as people celebrate the collapse of Bashar al- Assad's authoritarian regime
• Thousands gathered after Friday prayers, the first to be held since the country's former ruler fled to Moscow

• While Syria's new Islamist-led rebel rulers have said they will protect religious minorities, many have fled to Lebanon fearing reprisals
• Elsewhere, Israel has signalled it is preparing to station troops inside the buffer zone with Syria for several months
• As Syria's new government takes shape, diplomatic efforts are ongoing to ensure there is no return to violence. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Iraq for unannounced talks to discuss the repercussions in the region

Austria says it is now offering Syrian refugees €1,000 (£830) to move back to their home country, in the form of a "return bonus".

The government had already joined a number of countries in stopping asylum applications from Syrians, after the fall of the Assad regime.

Syria "now needs its citizens in order to be rebuilt", Chancellor Karl Nehammer says in a post on X.

Syrians are the biggest group of asylum seekers in Austria, according to Reuters.

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Aleppo

Image source, BBC/Lee Durant

Chanting revolutionary slogans and waving what is known as the independence flag, crowds have gathered in Aleppo's Saadallah al-Jabiri Square to celebrate the end of the Assad regime.

Aleppo witnessed, and was ravaged by, intense fighting between the opposition and government forces during the civil war. Earlier this month it became the first major city to be captured by Islamist-led rebels.

"It’s a free Syria, and free Aleppo," says 19-year-old Zeina, who has come with her mother and sister. "Everything will change now. We hope there will be better conditions, more freedom, more development."

Her father, she says, was killed two years ago in a Syrian prison. "I’m sad he couldn’t see this moment. Everyone here hates Assad. He killed the Syrian people’s dreams, he stole their future."

Abdul, a 25-year-old mechanical engineer, returned to Aleppo four days ago, after spending 10 years in Turkey. "I thought I’d never come back. It’s a miracle. I’m proud," he says. "I’ve already forgotten the racism and the humiliation I suffered being a refugee. We now have our dignity back. That’s the most important thing."

Assad's fall, he says, is like being cured from a disease. It is remarkable to hear those feelings being shared so freely in a country where opposition was not tolerated, and critics either disappeared or were sent to jail, where they were tortured and killed.

While some Syrians are fearful of the country's new era, in Latakia - once a stronghold for the Assad regime, - a huge rally is taking place, celebrating the collapse of the leader's rule.

Our correspondent there earlier said it feels bewildering in the city - this where the Assad regime drew most of its power from, and now it is the rebels who toppled him who are in charge.

Locals have been seen spilling onto rooftops and are brandishing independence flags as they anticipate the start of a new chapter in Syria:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Much of the focus in the days since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime has been on the prospect of millions of displaced Syrians returning to their homes - but some are heading in the opposite direction.

Tens of thousands of people, mainly from the minority Shia Muslim community, have crossed into Lebanon, Reuters new agency reported citing an unnamed Lebanese security official.

Those fleeing fear reprisals now that Syria is under the control of a rebel alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is drawn from the country's majority Sunni Muslim community.

HTS has given public assurances that religious minorities will be safe during Syria's transition to a new government but some fear the bloody divisions of the civil war could resurface.

The Assad regime was dominated by another minority, the Alawites (an offshoot of Shia Islam), but survived thanks to backing from Shia-controlled Iran and its allied armed proxy groups, most notably Hezbollah.

Samira Baba and her children are among those who've spent days at the border with Lebanon hoping to cross. She tells Reuters she had received threats over social media.

"The rebels in charge haven't openly threatened us, so it could be other factions, or individuals," she says. "We just don't know. But we know it's time to leave."

Image source, Reuters

Mass celebrations are taking place across Syria to mark the end of five decades of authoritarian rule by the Assad regime.

BBC Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab reports from one rally in Umayyad Square, in the capital Damascus.

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Antony Blinken is currently in Baghdad where he has met Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

The US Secretary of State flew in from Ankara, Turkey, via C-17 US Air Force plane.

Amid the concrete blast walls of the airfield diplomatic facility, Blinken put on a flak jacket, along with his senior officials, before they were flown by helicopter to the US Embassy in the Iraqi capital.

He then travelled by motorcade to meet the Iraqi PM.

These are very critical set of talks for America because of how important Iraq is in what happens in Syria. There is a shared interest between the US and the Iraqis around trying to keep the Islamic State group contained and degraded in the desert areas of Syria.

These were very important discussions for Blinken here, as the Americans try to rally Arab neighbours around Syria for their demands that a future government is inclusive, moderate and transparent.

Yogita Limaye
South Asia correspondent, in Damascus

In the Al-Muhajiren neighbourhood in Damascus, the owner of a sweet shop, Mahmoud Abdul Haq, is getting the shutters of his shop re-painted.

During the Assad regime, shops, restaurants and businesses were mandated to paint the red, white and black flag with two green stars on their shutters.

"If we didn't do it, we would have been imprisoned. Now that Bashar [al-Assad] is gone, I want to get rid of any sign of him."

"I’m painting over the flag and my shop’s shutters will be plain white, representing peace. I've even offered to get the shutters of all my neighbours re-painted,” Mahmoud tells us.

As we drove through the neighbourhood, we saw a few more people also covering over the flags painted on their shutters.

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has been asked by Syria's interim government to remain in the country.

Gonzalo Vargas Llosa - the UNHCR's representative in Syria - tells reporters that the need for aid in the country is "absolutely huge", the AFP news agency quotes him saying.

He says the organisation has had "some contact" with the interim authorities and "the initial signals that they are sending us are constructive".

"They appreciate the work that we have been doing now for many years, that they need us to continue doing that work."

Hugo Bachega
Reporting from Aleppo

Image source, Reuters

We're in the main square in central Aleppo where a huge crowd has gathered to celebrate this day, which has been called "Victory Day" to mark the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Behind me people are waving the independence flag - which represents the opposition movement here. Syrian flags have also been removed here from the square.

Aleppo was the first major city to be captured by the rebels in that astonishing offensive against the regime. People have been telling us how happy they are to see the fall of the regime and have been talking about how they suffered under the Assad dynasty.

They've also been telling us about the brutality of the regime and how they feel free from violence and oppression. It's remarkable to see people sharing their views so freely in a country that suffered so much during the Assad years.

This is a day to celebrate what's happened here, but obviously there are many concerns about what is going to happen next. A lot of people came to us to tell us that there are financial difficulties. So this is one of the many problems facing the new authorities here.

Today, though, is an opportunity to celebrate a new era for this country.

Earlier we reported that Israel says it plans on keeping its forces in the buffer zone between the country and Syria for months.

One analyst tells the news agency AFP that he expects Israel to be carrying out "surveillance missions" there with the duration depending "on the stability and intention of the new Syrian regime".

Michael Horowitz says Israel will be concerned about any chemical or strategic weapons the former Syrian government had falling into the hands of jihadist groups.

He also specifically mentions the strategic importance of keeping troops on Mount Hermon - which overlooks Syria, Israel and Lebanon.

Ahead of today's rallies across Syria, in the capital Damascus people gathered for the first Friday prayers since the fall of the Assad regime.

Hundreds of Syrians made their way to the Umayyad Mosque in the city before flooding out onto the nearby square.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Quentin Sommerville
Reporting from Latakia

Image source, BBC/Quentin Sommerville

It’s a kind of bewildering scene here in Latakia as much as it is elsewhere in Syria, but they’re particularly feeling it here because this was a regime stronghold. This is where the regime drew most of its power from.

The Assad regime said that if they ever lose power there would be massacres here. Well there haven’t been. In fact there’s a big celebration around the former statue of deposed President Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez al-Assad. I saw that statue yesterday and there’s not much left of it - just his shoes.

The vacuum here in Latakia, like elsewhere in Syria, has been filled by HTS. Let’s not forget, they were the enemy a couple of weeks ago. Now they’re the power in this town and they seem to be keeping the peace.

At the Russian airbase nearby it’s business as usual, with aircraft still on the ground. They also hold a deep water port here so they can get to their submarines as well as their ships.

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group of Islamist rebels has warned people not to approach either of those bases. As we were driving here yesterday multiple Russian convoys passed us unhindered.

There may be a deal in the works that allows Russia to keep those bases. What’s in it for HTS? This is a new government, they’re in desperate need of legitimacy and friends, and perhaps are thinking a deal with the Russians will help them on that journey.

Celebrations are well under way in Damascus's Umayyad Square.

People are waving the flag of the Syrian opposition and chanting revolutionary songs and slogans.

Among them are men in black combat gear - wearing body armour and carrying guns. They're from the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham which was instrumental in the downfall of the Assad regime.

The rallies have been described as celebratory - which explains the appearance of a Syrian wearing a Spongebob Squarepants costume - albeit next to an armed HTS fighter.

Earlier Syria's interim prime minister attended Friday prayers at Umayyad Mosque.

Mohammad al-Bashir was swarmed by the crowd as he arrived, and later gave a speech to worshippers who had gathered there.

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Aleppo

Once a bustling commercial hub, Aleppo witnessed - and was ravaged by - intense battles between opposition fighters and government forces during the civil war which followed the 2011 uprisings against Assad's rule.

Thousands were killed here, tens of thousands more fled.

"When the regime fell, we could raise our heads," Mahmoud Ali, who is 80, says. In 2012, he moved with his family from rebel-controlled East Aleppo to Idlib, the rebel enclave in north-west Syria run by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group that led the anti-Assad offensive.

"Repression is what I saw all my life in the hands of the Assad family."

His daughter, 45-year-old Samar, is one of millions in Syria who had only known this country being ruled by the Assads.

"Nobody dared to speak up because of the terror of the regime," she says, "we're happy, but there's still fear. Why are we still afraid? It's because of the fear they [the regime] planted inside us."

Her brother, Ahmed, agrees: "You could be sent to jail for saying simple things. I'm happy, but I'm still concerned. But we'll never live under repression again."

His father intervenes to agree with him: "That's impossible."

• Inside Aleppo, the first city to fall to Syrian rebels

Lina Sinjab
Reporting from Damascus

Image source, BBC/Lina Sinjab

Crowds started heading to Umayyad Square following the call for country-wide demonstrations after Friday prayers.

We are at the square and it is already looking like a party. Speakers have been set up and music started playing: "Raise your head high, you are Syrian."

Rebels pause for pictures with civilians. One of them pulled out a piece of paper and started reading poetry he had written praising the country.

We spoke to Sara al-Zobi who is a university student living in Damascus but originally from Deraa - the city the opposition regard as the birthplace of the revolution. She tells me Syrians are here to celebrate and that "hand-in hand" they will build the future.

Looking ahead, civil society and many professionals are now considering the initiatives which will shape the political process in the future. But for almost everyone today is a celebration and the work begins tomorrow.

Image source, Getty Images

We're now seeing pictures of people celebrating across Syria, following last week's downfall of the Assad regime.

Large crowds have gathered for today's rallies - these images show people on the streets of Sweida, a city in southern Syria near the border with Jordan.

Image source, Getty Images