It’s been just about every week for the reason that surprising cave in of the Assad regime.The tip of greater than part a century of brutal dictatorship in Syria is—to state the most obvious—a big geopolitical second. It has embarrassed Tehran; stuck Washington off guard; and upended many assumptions concerning the area.The fallout is handiest starting. In Damascus, the victorious Islamist rebels are making an attempt to consolidate political energy. In a video message Friday, their chief Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, congratulated “the nice Syrian other folks for the victory of the blessed revolution” and invited them “to go to the squares to turn their happiness with out taking pictures bullets and scaring other folks.”However there’s extra to the tale than just a country rejoicing—on the other hand welcome Bashar al-Assad’s departure could also be. Many are anxious that the newest chaos may permit for the reemergence of ISIS—and is the reason why The usa hit ISIS camps in Syria with airstrikes previous this week. In the meantime, within the north of the rustic, Turkish-backed rebels are combating U.S.-backed Kurds. And in southwestern Syria, Druze villages are vote casting to request that Israel annex their territory. Signs of a country—and a area—in flux.Worshippers attend mass on the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Aleppo, Syria, on December 12, 2024. (Ozan Kose by means of Getty Photographs)Amongst the ones anxiously questioning what comes subsequent are Syria’s 500,000 Christians.For her file for The Unfastened Press as of late, Madeleine Rowley spoke to Syrian Christians who’re anxious concerning the long term. One among them is Elias, a 21-year-old residing in Berlin however whose circle of relatives is in Damascus. “If anything else occurs to us, don’t come again to Syria,” his mom instructed him in a voice message previous this week. “Don’t come to bury us.”Elias fears the worst. “We don’t have any reason why to accept as true with al-Jolani,” he tells The Unfastened Press. “He’s a terrorist.”Learn Madeleine Rowley’s complete tale on what’s subsequent for Syria’s Christians right here.Lots of the ones taking a look ahead with trepidation also are taking a look again with horror. Within the days for the reason that fall of Assad, the level of the evil of his regime has come into center of attention. Nowhere is that clearer than in Sednaya—the regime’s maximum infamous jail, torture advanced, and loss of life camp.This week, Syrians flocked there to seek for lacking family members—and for a complete accounting of the regime’s violent brutality. Our cameraman was once amongst the ones crowds and, in collaboration with The Heart for Peace Communications, we won exceptional get right of entry to to Sednaya and heard from survivors of this manufacturing facility of loss of life.Click on right here to look at our unique, firsthand glance within Assad’s maximum infamous jail.