DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Schools in Damascus reopened for students on Sunday, a week after Bashar al-Assad was toppled by Syrian Islamic fighters.
In Jawdat al-Hashemi school (also known as al-Tajhiz school) the flag adopted by Syria's new ruler was raised in the school yard amid cheering students and teachers.
The world is carefully watching to see if Syria's new rulers can stabilise the country after a 13-year civil war fought along sectarian and ethnic lines destroyed the country.
Rebuilding Syria will be a colossal task following a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Cities have been bombed to ruins, swathes of countryside depopulated, the economy gutted by international sanctions and millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the biggest displacements of modern times.