Families seek answers: Syrians search for loved ones missing in Assad's jails

Syrian rescuers searched a jail synonymous with the "worst atrocities" of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's rule as people in the capital flocked to a central square Monday to celebrate their country's freedom.

Assad fled Syria as Islamist-led rebels swept into the capital, bringing to an end on Sunday five decades of rule by his clan over a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars of the century.

He oversaw a crackdown on a democracy movement that erupted in 2011, sparking a war that killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes.

At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father, Hafez, was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centers used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping out of the ruling Baath party's line.

On Monday, rescuers from the Syrian White Helmets group said they were searching for potential secret doors or basements in Saydnaya prison, though they said there was no immediate sign that anyone was trapped.

"We are working with all our energy to reach a new hope, and we must be prepared for the worst," the organization said in a statement, urging families of the missing to have "patience."

Aida Taha, aged 65, said she had been "roaming the streets like a madwoman" in search of her brother, who was arrested in 2012.

"We've been oppressed long enough; we want our children back," she said.

While Syria has been at war for over 13 years, the government's collapse ended up coming in a matter of days, with a lightning offensive launched by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by Western governments as a terrorist group.

While it remains to be seen how HTS will operate now that Assad is gone, it has sought to moderate its image and to assure Syria's many religious minorities that they need not fear.

AFP