Thousands of Syrians celebrate in central Damascus during the first Friday prayers since the fall of Assad.

DAMASCUS – Thousands of Syrians gathered at Damascus’ historic main mosque on Friday for the first Muslim Friday prayers since overthrow of President Bashar Assad, while gigantic crowds celebrated in the capital’s largest square.

The meetings were an important symbolic moment for the dramatic shift of power in Syria, nearly a week after insurgents stormed Damascus, toppling the Assad-led state that had ruled the country for half a century with an iron fist. He arrived as US Secretary of State. Antonio Blinken met with allies across the region seeking to shape the transition and called for an “inclusive and non-sectarian” interim government.

After talks in Jordan and Türkiye, which backs some of the Syrian insurgent factions, Blinken arrived in Iraq on a previously unannounced stop. So far, American officials have not talked about direct meetings with Syria’s new rulers.

The main insurgent force, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has been working to establish security and begin a political transition after taking Damascus early Sunday. The group has sought to reassure a public stunned by Assad’s fall and worried about extremist jihadists among the rebels. The insurgent leaders say they have broken with their extremist past, although the United States and European countries still consider HTS a terrorist group.

HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, appeared in a video message on Friday congratulating the “great Syrian people on the victory of the blessed revolution.”

“I invite you to go out to the squares to show your happiness without shooting bullets or scaring people,” he said. “And then we will work to build this country and, as I said at the beginning, we will be victorious with the help of God.”

Syrians celebrate in the historic heart of Damascus

Large crowds, including some insurgents, packed Damascus’ historic Umayyad Mosque in the capital’s old city for Friday prayers, many waving the rebel opposition’s flag, with its three red stars, which quickly replaced the flag of the It was Assad with his two green stars. .

According to Arab television stations, Friday’s sermon was delivered by Mohammed al-Bashir, the interim prime minister installed by HTS this week.

The scene resonated on multiple levels. The mosque, one of the oldest in the world, dating back some 1,200 years, is a beloved symbol of Syria, and the sermons there, like all sermons in mosques throughout Syria, had been strictly controlled under Assad’s rule. . Furthermore, in the early days of the 2011 anti-government uprising, protesters often left Friday prayers to march in demonstrations against Assad, before he launched a brutal crackdown that turned the uprising into a long and bloody civil war.

“I had not set foot in the Umayyad Mosque since 2011,” due to the tight security surrounding it, said one worshiper, Ibrahim al-Araby. “I haven’t been this happy in 11 or 12 years.”

Another worshiper, Khair Taha, said there was “fear and fear for what is to come, but there is also a lot of hope that we now have a voice and can try to build.”

A few blocks away, at Damascus’s largest roundabout, called Umayyad Square, thousands of people gathered, including many families with young children, a sign that, at least so far, the country’s transformation has not seen violent instability. .

“Syria unified to build Syria,” the crowd chanted. Some shouted insults at Assad and his late father, calling them pigs, an insult that previously would have led to offenders being taken to one of the feared detention centers of Assad’s security forces.

One man in the crowd, Khaled Abu Chahine, 51, originally from the southern province of Daraa, where the 2011 uprising first broke out, said he hoped for “freedom and coexistence among all Syrians, Alawites, Sunnis, Shiites and Druze.” “

“The previous government was a government of crime and executions,” he said, calling on foreign nations “that harbor these gangs to bring them to justice and those who are in Syria and committed crimes must face justice.”

Interim Prime Minister al-Bashir had been head of a de facto administration created by HTS in Idlib, the opposition enclave in northwestern Syria. Rebels had been suppressed in Idlib for years before fighters erupted in a shock offensive and marched across Syria in 10 days. They finally took Damascus early Sunday, as Assad’s military and security forces faded.

In Umayyad Square, Wardan Aoun, who identified himself as a fighter from Idlib, praised the new administration. “Now there is a good government… We live in Idlib under this government and there is no corruption there.”

The United States and its allies try to shape a rapidly changing Syria

Al-Sharaa, leader of the HTS, has promised to bring a pluralistic government to Syria, seeking to allay fears among many Syrians – especially its many minority communities – that the insurgents will bring in a hardline extremist government.

Another key factor will be achieving international recognition for a new government in Syria, a country where multiple foreign powers have their hands in the mix.

Turkey controls a swath of Syrian territory along the shared border and backs an insurgent faction uncomfortably allied with HTS, and is deeply opposed to any advance by Syria’s Kurds.

The United States has troops in eastern Syria to combat remnants of the Islamic State group and backs the Kurdish-backed fighters who rule most of the east. Since Assad’s fall, Israel has bombed sites across Syria, saying it is trying to prevent weapons from falling into extremist hands, and has seized a swath of southern Syria along the border with the Golan Heights. occupied by Israel, calling it a buffer zone.

After speaking with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken said there was “broad agreement” between Turkey and the United States on what they would like to see in Syria.

That starts with an “interim government in Syria, one that is inclusive and nonsectarian and that protects the rights of minorities and women” and that does not “pose any kind of threat to any of Syria’s neighbors,” Blinken said.

Fidan said the priority was to “establish stability in Syria as soon as possible, prevent terrorism from gaining ground and ensure that IS and the PKK are not dominant,” referring to the Islamic State group and the Kurdistan Workers Party. Ankara considers the PKK within Türkiye’s borders a terrorist group, as do U.S.-backed Kurdish-backed forces in Syria.

In Baghdad, Blinken met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani and said both countries wanted to ensure that the Islamic State group, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh, does not take advantage of Syria’s transition to re-emerge.

“Having put Daesh back in its box, we cannot let it out, and we are determined to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Blinken said.

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Lee reported from Ankara, Türkiye. Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.