Residents of Syria’s capital are picnicking on a once-forbidden mountaintop and trading openly in dollars and imported Nescafe. They say the city seems theirs again.

Crowds of people were gathered to greet those arriving at Damascus airport, with several Syrians returning for the first time in years.

International flights resumed at Syria's main airport in Damascus on Tuesday for the first time since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad last month, AFP journalists said.On December 18,

Syria said on Saturday the country's main airport in Damascus would resume international flights starting next week after such commercial trips were halted following last month's ousting of president Bashar al-Assad.

Passengers at Damascus airport hugged their families and cried with joy on Tuesday (January 7), as international flights resumed for the first time since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime last month.

The country’s new leaders are pushing to restore a sense of normalcy. But Syria remains under a host of international sanctions imposed during the Assad regime.

International commercial flights have resumed at Damascus airport, for the first time since the ouster of Basshar al Assad by Islamist-led rebels. Some of the Syrians waiting to welcome their loved ones home had spent more than a decade apart from each other.

First international commercial flight lands at Damascus airport since Assad's fall. Qatar Airways flight arrived on Tuesday, greeted by passengers' families inside the terminal. Many passengers are Syrians returning home after more than a decade.