Damascus stirred back to life on Monday at the start of a hopeful but uncertain era after armed opposition forces seized the capital and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia, following 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family’s brutal rule.Heavy traffic returned to the streets and people ventured out after a nighttime curfew, but most shops remained shut. Armed opposition forces milled about in the center.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Firdous Omar, from Idlib in the northwest, among fighters in central Umayyad Square, said he had been battling the al-Assad government since 2011 and was now looking forward to laying down his weapon and returning to his job as a farmer.“We had a purpose and a goal and now we are done with it. We want the state and security forces to be in charge.”The lightning advance of a militia alliance spearheaded by “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, was a generational