“I should be dreaming — that is the best dream of my life and I don’t need to get up,” Mohammed Al-Owir, 63, advised NBC News in Damascus’ Umayyad Square, which has grow to be a scene of flag-flying, automobile horns and celebratory gunfire.
Imprisoned for 9 years by Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, he described dwelling “in fixed concern, by no means allowed to elevate our heads” below the household’s 50-year dynasty.
His half-smile hinting hope, ache and trepidation, Al-Owir surveyed the scene together with his granddaughter, Lina, a 20-month-old with hair in buns and pink sparkly sneakers.
“I don’t need to depart this sq. ever,” he mentioned. “I need to keep right here with the Syrian individuals and watch them dance and sing, take a look at their happiness, their laughter and their pleasure.”