'I found freedom and my country is now free too'

A Syrian man living on Teesside says he feels like he is "in a dream" following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Mouhyedin Alkhalil, who lives in Darlington, fled his home country in 2012 as he was facing forced enlistment into the now ousted former president's army.

The 32-year-old, who has a street food business, said he had been unable to speak freely with his family since fleeing to keep them out of "trouble", but he said he "knew what freedom" meant when he arrived in the North East.

Assad, who ruled Syria for 24 years after the death of his father, has fled to Russia after his government was toppled by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel factions on Sunday.

After initially going to Lebanon, Mr Alkhalil came to the UK in 2016 and was taken in by a couple in Darlington through a United Nations resettlement programme.

He opened a Syrian street food stand, Falafel Fella, in 2018 and opened his first cafe in 2019.

Talking about life in Syria since 2011, he said he was "living in a scary country".

He said: "You can't say anything, you can't even talk about your feelings and I thought we're going to be like this forever.

"When you go to sleep you never know if you're going to wake up in the morning," Mr Alkhalil said, adding his family used to celebrate when his dad came back from work alive.

Now, he added, "Syria is for Syria".

"Syria is going to be a democratic country. Syria is going to be run exactly like the UK," he said.

"We lost so many lives to come to this point."

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