Dozens of people gathered at al-Nour Square in Tripoli on Dec. 7, 2025, to celebrate the first anniversary of the fall of the Syrian regime. (Credit: Michel Hallak)
Rallies were held across northern Lebanon, as well as in Saida, on Sunday to celebrate the first anniversary of the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. In northern Lebanon, dozens of people from various Tripoli neighborhoods, including the Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh area gathered at al-Nour Square, waving flags and singing traditional hymns.
Several town across Akkar district, notably the border town of Sheikh Ayash, were also host to celebrations of the Dec. 8, 2024, ouster, which came after a 10-day lightning offensive by a coalition of rebel opposition forces, mostly Islamist, led by now-president Ahmad al-Sharaa.
While in southern Lebanon, Saida's streets filled with convoys of cars waving Syrian flags which drove to Eliaa Square where they set off fireworks.
An estimated 400,000 Syrian refugees who had fled the nearly 14 years of devastating civil war in Syria crossed back over the border from Lebanon this year, according to the U.N., however hundreds of thousands are still waiting for conditions to stabilize and for the Syrian economy to become viable again.
Tens of thousands of Syrians also fled to Lebanon during Assad's ouster, including among them thousands of high-ranking officers who perpetrated deadly violence against Syrians under the Assad regime.
