“No one slept in Syria last night… no Syrians abroad slept,” said Rania Kataf, who runs the Humans of Damascus Facebook page.

“The whole community was holding their phones waiting for the latest news.

“How do I feel? Overwhelmed… We all feel like we’ve been underwater, literally, for thirteen years, and we all just breathed.

“And I know there are so many people much older than me who have been through too much.”

She said she had “mixed feelings” since the rebel groups’ offensive began, but was no longer afraid.

In the past, she said, she was “afraid to share an opinion, I was so afraid to put a like, to put a heart on someone from the opposition.”

Another Damascus resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC: “For the first time ever there is a real feeling of freedom.”

He described celebrations in the streets and in Umayyad Square, a landmark in the heart of Damascus and home to key government agencies, including the Defense Ministry and the Syrian armed forces.