In Damascus, soldiers have fled and police have left their posts. Looters have broken into the Ministry of Defense. Iraq is reportedly evacuating its embassy staff to Lebanon.
A few kilometers away, people have stormed the presidential palace. Portraits of the now ousted President Bashar al-Assad, in rooms where he received heads of state, are said to have been taken down from the walls. Footage shows looters leaving the palace with plates and other household items.
Iran's Embassy Plundered
Women, children, and men are seen walking around in al-Assad's now empty home.
I'm taking pictures because I'm so happy to be here in his house, says Abu Omar.
Iran's embassy has also been plundered after the building appears to have been abandoned. Pictures from the AP news agency show shattered windows and documents scattered in the entrance. Tehran has supported the al-Assad regime for many years and has yet to comment on its fall.
People were loading looted items onto trucks outside, according to AFP's photographer.
Meanwhile, the fall of the al-Assad regime is being celebrated in the Syrian capital. Cars are honking and gunfire is being fired.
The dictator's fall is a "victory for the Islamic nation". That's what Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, leader of the Islamist militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), says in his first public appearance since the regime was toppled.
"Martyrs' Blood"
From the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, he says, in front of hundreds of listeners, that the victory was achieved thanks to "God and the martyrs' blood" and that al-Assad turned Syria into "a breeding ground for Iran's greed".
Syrians are trying to take in what has happened in the country over the past 24 hours.
I can barely believe what has happened. After the fear that he (al-Assad) and his father made us live in for many years, and the panic and state of terror I lived in, says Omar Daher, who claims that his father was killed and his brother imprisoned by al-Assad's security forces.
Ghazal al-Sharif, another man who has taken to the streets, describes what has happened as God's answer to every oppressed person's prayer.
