The brutal regime of Syria's Bashar al-Assad fell over the weekend with dizzying speed,

and Syrians within the country and around the world burst into celebration.

It has never been in a moment that beautiful.

Omar al-Soghury is now based in the U.S.

He had been detained and tortured in Assad's infamous Sednaya prison,

and this week he described the moment he realized

the government had fallen. I mean, the joy I felt was so extreme that I cried. I cried almost

endlessly at some moment I would be waiting for for a long time. Many had fled the violence in

their country over the last decade plus.

Razan Rashidi, the executive director of the human rights group, the Syria campaign, was among them.

For me, it was an amazing feeling just to be able to hug complete strangers and tell them congratulations.

Syria is ours, and it does not belong to the Assad family.

Now, the rebel group Hayat Thakir al-Sham, or HTS, has to govern. They are designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. In the Syrian capital,

Damascus, morning edition host Laila Faddle described the first steps the leadership is taking.

Today, they're saying the right things, that they will lead a

peaceful transition of power, that Syrians of all creeds and ethnicities will be protected under

their rule. She says life in Syria already feels different. There are signs everywhere of a changed

Syria. No passport control, abandoned military posts, military trucks and tanks. Instead, there are

checkpoints armed mostly by young rebels from HTS. But the violence has not entirely disappeared.

NPR's Hidal-Al-Shalchi has also been reporting from Damascus. Anger and revenge is still very palpable

here. You know, there have been many videos circulating online of revenge attacks and summary executions.

And she says some members of minority groups in Syria are afraid of what the future may bring.

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