Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service Studios in London.

I'm Tim Franks. Across the Middle East, Friday prayers are not just the major moment of the Muslim weekly calendar.

They have often been, and still often are, the precursor to some major gathering, perhaps some major

confrontation. Back in the early days of the protests in Syria during those restive moments of the

Arab Spring in 2011, Friday prayers would be the preface to the big demonstrations against

President Assad, at least when it was just an act of great bravery to do so rather than

an impossible near-suicidal act of defiance. So there was a profound symbolism in the call today

from the leading rebel group in Syria, HTS, for there to be mass demonstrations, not to protest,

but to proclaim, to proclaim freedom from the grip of Assad.

Ahmed al-Shara, previously known as Abu Mohamed al-Jalani, is the leader of HTS.

I would like to congratulate the great Syrian people for the victory, for the blessed revolution.

I'd like to invite them to public squares to express their joy,

but without gunfire and terrorizing people.

And then, let's move onwards towards building this country back.

As we've said since the beginning, we shall be victorious, God willing.

And in Homs, one of the original cradles of the protest more than a decade ago,

a jubilant crowd poured onto the streets.

A chant of praise to God from Homs.

And in Damascus, among those answering the call, this woman,

she'd come from the southern city of Dera.

Actually, as you can see, I'm so happy. Like, wars cannot express my feelings. Today, we are here

celebrating the new Syria. It's the time where all Syrians come back together, hand to hand, and where we're going to grow our country.

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