Roaming the opulent Damascus home of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Abu Omar felt a sense of giddy defiance being in the residence of the man he said had long oppressed him.
“I am taking pictures, because I am so happy to be here in the middle of his house,” said the 44-year-old, showing photographs he took on his mobile phone.
He was among the dozens an AFP correspondent saw entering Assad’s home after Assad fled the country—to Moscow according to Russian news agencies—as rebels took control of the capital in an 11-day lightning offensive.
The swift campaign by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies ended more than five decades of brutal rule by the Assad family.
“I came for revenge. They oppressed us in incredible ways,” Abu Omar added from the compound of three six-storey buildings in the upscale al-Maliki neighbourhood.
Jubilant men, women, and children wandered the home and its sprawling garden in a daze, the rooms stripped bare except for some furniture and a portrait of Assad discarded on the floor.
Residents in the Syrian capital were seen cheering in the streets, as the rebel factions heralded the departure of “tyrant” Assad.
The government fell more than 13 years after Assad’s crackdown on anti-government protests ignited Syria’s civil war, which has drawn in foreign powers, jihadists and claimed more than half a million lives.
‘Sale! Sale!’
On Sunday, video circulating online showed crowds peeking into the bedrooms in the Assad residence, which was previously off limits to ordinary citizens.
They could be seen snatching clothes, plates and whatever belongings they could find including a Louis Vuitton cardboard shopping bag.
In one video, a man could be heard yelling that everything was on “Sale! Sale!”.
Umm Nader, 35, came with her husband from a nearby district to tour the residence that once inspired fear and awe, and which one visitor now described as a “museum”.
“I came to see this place that we were banned from, because they wanted us to live in poverty and deprivation,” she told AFP.
Nader said the former inhabitants of the residence had left without cutting off the heating and electricity, “meanwhile our children are getting sick from the cold.”
Daily power outages that last for hours have been a fact of life in Syria, reeling from successive economic crises after more than a decade of war and Western sanctions.
Most of the population has been pushed into poverty, according to the United Nations.
An AFP correspondent also saw a charred reception hall at the Damascus presidential palace a couple kilometres away.
As he moved from room to room, Abu Omar said he felt overjoyed.
“I no longer feel afraid. My only concern is that we unite (as Syrians) and build this country together,” he said, full of emotion.