This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service.
We're coming to you live from London.
I'm James Menendez.
And we're going to begin today in Syria because it is a year
since what seemed like an immovable force in the Middle East,
the iron grip of the Assad dynasty, suddenly buckled in the face of a lightning advance by rebels.
Rebels that have been trying to dislodge the regime for well over a decade without success.
A civil war that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,
forced millions into exile and left much of Syria in ruins.
Then, on December 8, 2024,
the rebel spearheaded by an offshoot of al-Qaeda Hayat Tahrir al-Sham surged into the capital Damascus,
seizing government buildings and state television to make this declaration.
By the grace of God, the city of Damascus has been liberated,
and the tyrant Bashar al-Sad has been deposed.
All the oppressed detainees have been released from the regime's jails.
The liberation of Damascus Operation Room urges the Mujahideen and the citizens to protect all the assets of the Free Syrian State.
Long live Syria, free and proud.
Bashar al-Assad, whose family first seized power more than half a century earlier,