‘New history written’ says HTS leader al-Julani in Syria victory speech

Al-Julani speaks from Damascus’s historic Umayyad Mosque, tells Syrians that building a new country will be hard work.

The leader of the main Syrian opposition armed group that seized Syria’s capital, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, has said the Syrian people are the “rightful owners” of the country after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, and declared a “new history” has been written for the entire Middle East.

Arriving in Damascus just hours after his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group led the capture of the city on Sunday, the leader gave a victory speech in the capital’s symbolic Umayyad Mosque.

As daylight broke, Syrians woke up to a dramatically changed country, after opposition forces swept into Damascus following a lightning offensive. They declared that they had toppled the government of “tyrant” Bashar al-Assad, who fled Syria in the early hours of Sunday and is in Russia, according to Russian media reports.

“The [al-Assad] regime has imprisoned thousands of its own civilians unjustly and without them committing any crimes,” al-Julani told a crowd gathered at the Umayyad Mosque.

“We [the Syrian people] are the rightful owners [of this country]. We have been fighting, and today we have been rewarded with this victory.”