More than a decade of stalemate in the Syrian Civil War shattered over the last week.

A rebel advance took Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by surprise.

Armed rebels in bulletproof jackets cheered and sang outside the ancient citadel of Aleppo, Syria's second largest city.

They film themselves to capture the moment, huge grins on their faces.

Freelance journalist Sarah Kossum used the opportunity to enter Aleppo for the first time since the war started in 2011.

I've seen people who are very happy. They have been in Elipo, they've never left Elipo,

and they are very happy because the opposition entered the city.

Kossam, who opposes the government of Bashar al-Assad, said the people are ready to start

living again after so many years of violence and uncertainty.

I asked her whether she thinks it's possible for Syrians to return to normal.

The war has caused so much destruction and death. After years of stalemate, do you believe this

resumption of fighting can actually lead to a positive outcome and not just more cycles of killing?

I really hope so. I really hope so because I've seen till this moment so many people, hundreds of

people, happy to return back home. They are happy to return back to their villages. We have

tens of villages in the countryside of Elipo and the Lipo city. Thousands of people,

really hundreds of thousands of thousands of thousands of hundreds of thousands of people will return

back home. So the situation will be so much different for those people, especially people who are living in the camps in the northwest of Syria.

We know that the NGOs cannot offer the people who are displaced in the camps, what they need.

Since Kossam and I spoke on Tuesday, the government has had another startling setback.

Insurgents say they've taken control of another strategically important city.

Consider this.

The Syrian Civil War has been locked in a stalemate for years.

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