Rebel forces in Syria have retaken the capital city of Damascus from longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who has fled the country for Moscow. The fall of the Assad regime marks a new chapter for Syria, which has been mired in a multi-party civil war since 2011, sparked by the Arab Spring uprisings. I Photos by Chris McGrath @cmcgrath_photo I #GettyImagesNews #Reportage #Syria⁠ ⁠ 1-4) People carry the coffin of Mazen al-Hamada during a funeral for the Syrian activist on December 12 in Damascus. Rebel forces who seized the capital this weekend said they found Hamada's body in the morgue at Sednaya prison, where it is assumed he was killed shortly before the prison's liberation and the collapse of the Assad regime. Hamada was detained and tortured during the uprising of 2011 and released in 2013, when he received asylum in the Netherlands. In a development that confused friends and family, he returned to Syria in 2020 and disappeared soon after. ⁠ 5) A woman takes a selfie in front of a destroyed tank in Umayyad Square on December 11 in Damascus.⁠ 6) People pour over images of deceased victims of the Assad regime, alongside missing persons posters, as they search for relatives outside a hospital on December 12 in Damascus.⁠ 7) People search for missing relatives that have been missing for years under the Assad regime at a morgue on December 12 in Damascus.⁠ 8-9) Destroyed and looted rooms in Bashar al-Assad's Tishreen Palace on December 12 in Damascus.⁠ 10) A framed picture of Bashar al-Assad is seen shattered in the stairwell of a building at the Mezzeh Air Base on December 12 in Damascus.⁠