Syrian provinces stage military parades marking 1st anniversary of Assad’s fall

Syrian provinces staged military parades on Monday marking the first anniversary of the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, as President Ahmad al-Sharaa attended one of the parades in the capital Damascus.

According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), military helicopters flew over Damascus as a military parade was staged by the Ministry of Defense on the Mezzeh Highway in the capital.

Parades were also organized in the southern city of Daraa, the towns of Douma and Misraba in the Damascus countryside, and the central city of Hama.

SANA said that 14 paragliders flew over Damascus above the Umayyad Square to mark the anniversary of Assad's ouster.

Damascus, along with the provinces of Hama and Aleppo in central and northern Syria, saw heightened security deployment to secure public celebrations marking the anniversary.

In Aleppo, large public celebrations were launched amid displays of joy by local residents.

Syria's state-run TV channel Alikhbariah reported Monday that around 900,000 citizens have returned through land crossings to Syria since Assad's fall.

Assad, Syria's leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia last December, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963. Sharaa's new transitional administration was formed in January.