An anti-government fighter celebrates outside the Al-Muhajirin residential palace in Damascus on December 8, 2024. Celebrations erupted around Syria and crowds ransacked President Bashar al-Assad's luxurious home on December 8 after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared he had fled the country, in a spectacular end to five decades of Baath party rule. (Photo by Bakr AL KASSEM / AFP)