Syrians flocked to the main square of the capital Damascus on Monday, AFP journalists saw, to mark what many regard as a long-awaited new dawn after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.
A lightning offensive spearheaded by Islamist rebels ousted Assad from power on Sunday, opening a new chapter in Syria's history after five decades of rule by his clan.
The Kremlin on Monday declined to confirm reports that ally Assad had fled to Moscow.
Australian police said Monday they are hunting for three suspects over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue, designating it a terrorist act.
Mask-wearing attackers set the Adass Israel Synagogue ablaze before dawn on Friday, police said, gutting much of the building.
Some congregants were inside the single-storey building at the time but no serious injuries were reported.
The fire sparked international condemnation, including from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
President Bashar al-Assad fled Syria as Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus, triggering celebrations across the country and beyond at the end of his oppressive rule.
Crowds cheered in the streets of Damascus, where celebratory gunfire erupted as five decades of brutal Baath party rule came crashing to a dramatic end with Assad's flight from the capital on Sunday.
Russian news agencies said that Assad and his family were in Moscow, while rescuers on Monday searched the Syrian capital's notorious Sednaya prison for hidden underground cells holding detainees in secret.
Roaming the opulent Damascus home of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Abu Omar felt a sense of giddy defiance being in the residence of the man he said had long oppressed him.
"I am taking pictures, because I am so happy to be here in the middle of his house," said the 44-year-old, showing photographs he took on his mobile phone.
He was among the dozens an AFP correspondent saw entering Assad's home after Assad fled the country -- to Moscow according to Russian news agencies -- as rebels took control of the capital in an 11-day lightning offensive.
Brandishing the flag of the opposition, dozens of Syrian refugees in Iraq's Kurdistan region on Sunday celebrated the fall of Bashar al-Assad, dubbing the Syrian president's fall a victory for the "revolution".
After nearly 14 years of civil war in their home country, Syrians gathered near the centuries-old citadel in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil, many of them breaking out into the traditional dabkeh dance on the streets.
"One, one, the Syrian people are one," they shouted, raising the opposition flag with three red stars, AFP video showed.
Reda al-Khedr was only five when his mother escaped the siege of Homs in 2014. A decade later in Cairo, he can hardly believe the Syrian government that killed his father has fallen.
"I can barely remember Syria," Khedr, now 15, told AFP in the Egyptian capital.
"But now we're going to go home to a liberated Syria. We're done with Bashar al-Assad and his corrupt regime," he said on Sunday, still blinking in disbelief at rebel groups' lightning offensive that toppled the Assad family's five-decade rule earlier in the day.
US President Joe Biden on Sunday said deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad should be "held accountable" but called the nation's political upheaval a "historic opportunity" for Syrians to rebuild their country.
In the first full US reaction to Assad's overthrow by an Islamist-led coalition of rebel factions, Biden also warned that Washington will "remain vigilant" against the emergence of terrorist groups, announcing that US forces had just conducted fresh strikes against militants from the Islamic State organization.
Syria's rebel leader hailed a "historic" victory Sunday from a landmark Damascus mosque after his Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group headed a lightning offensive, snatching the capital from government control in less than two weeks.
His speech came as Syria's president Bashar al-Assad fled -- for Moscow according to Russian news agencies -- triggering celebrations across Syria and beyond at the end of his oppressive rule.
Thousands of jubilant Syrians rallied in Berlin and cities across Europe on Sunday, waving flags and barely able to contain their joy at the downfall of president Bashar al-Assad.
"Finally we are free!" exclaimed Bassam Al-Hamada, 39, among 5,000 people at an exuberant rally in the capital of Germany, where the one million-plus Syrians makes it the largest diaspora in Europe.
Thousands of Syrians in exile the length and breadth of Turkey celebrated the fall of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad in joyous scenes on Sunday.
Turkey has become home for millions of Syrians who fled since civil war erupted in their home nation in 2011.
Outside the Fatih Mosque in central Istanbul, one of the focal points for the city's 500,000-strong Syrian community, Mohamad Cuma said "no one was expecting" Assad's defeat.
