International flights resumed at Syria’s main airport in Damascus on Tuesday for the first time since opposition fighters toppled President Bashar Assad last month.
A Syrian Airlines flight bound for Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, took off at around 11:45 am, marking the first international commercial flight from the airport since December 8.
"Today marks a new beginning," Damascus airport director Anis Fallouh told AFP.
"We started welcoming outbound and inbound international flights," he said.
The first local flight since Assad’s ouster took off on Dec. 18 from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country’s north.
Thirty-two people including journalists were on board the plane.
Assad fled Syria as a lightning opposition offensive wrested from his control city after city.
