In Damascus, Syrians Reclaim Spaces and Freedoms After al-Assad’s Fall NYT | Top Stories Raja Abdulrahim and Laura Boushnak 5 January 2025 at 18:00 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. © Laura Boushnak for The New York TimesMount Qasioun, which overlooks the Syrian capital, Damascus, is being revived as a leisure spot.