Nearly a decade after hundreds of thousands of Syrians arrived in Germany, many are now well-integrated and settled in jobs — and tens of thousands have gained German citizenship.

And just outside Damascus, celebrating crowds tossed a noose around the towering statue of Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, the dictator who first imposed his iron grip on Syria a half-century ago, and toppled it to the ground. Then they chained it to the back of a truck and dragged it through the streets past cheering crowds.