Statues fall across Syria as rebels claim victory

Damascus - Syrians around the country yesterday toppled and trampled on statues of President Bashar al-Assad's late father Hafez, who founded the brutal system of government that his son inherited.

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In the capital Damascus, people cheered as they stood on a toppled statue of former president Hafez al-Assad, in a highly symbolic moment for a country ruled with an iron fist for five decades by his clan.

The scenes came as Islamist-led rebels declared Bashar al-Assad had fled the country following a lightning offensive that wrested city after city from his control, culminating with their arrival in Damascus.

After five decades in power, most Syrians are too young to remember a time when the country was not ruled by the Assads.

Even prior to the rebels' declaration of the fall of Damascus, statues of Hafez al-Assad had been toppled in other cities around the country.

The images recalled footage from Iraq in 2003, when a US armored vehicle toppled a statue of former dictator Saddam Hussein with the help of a crowd of jubilant Iraqis on the day Baghdad fell to a US-led military coalition.