Hugo Bachega
The road to Idlib, a remote corner in north-west Syria, still has the signs of the old front lines: trenches, abandoned military positions, rocket shells and ammunition.
Until a little more than a week ago, this was the only area in the country controlled by the opposition.
From Idlib, rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, launched an astonishing offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad and ended his family's five-decade dictatorship in Syria.
As a result, they have become the country's de facto authorities and appear to be trying to bring their way of governing to the rest of Syria.
In Idlib's city centre, opposition flags, with a green stripe and three red stars, were flying high in public squares and being waved by men and women, old and young, in the wake of Assad's removal. Graffiti on walls celebrated the resistance against the regime.
While destroyed buildings and piles of rubble were a reminder of the not-so-distant war, repaired houses, recently opened shops and well-maintained roads were testament that some things had, indeed, improved. But there were complaints of what was seen as heavy-handed rule by the authorities.
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