Syrian flags and revolutionary songs fill the streets on a day of celebrating amid tight security.

Roses have filled the Syrian capital, Damascus, as people openly celebrated the anniversary of the revolution for the first time in 14 years after the toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year.

Civilians on Saturday were seen waving the Syrian flag and singing revolutionary songs amid tight security measures.

“People say these roses symbolise peace,” Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said, reporting from Damascus. “Imagine that for 14 years, helicopters in this country have been throwing barrel bombs on people, and now that is the time for peace and reconciliation, they are symbolically throwing roses.”

On March 15, 2011, unrest erupted across Deraa, Damascus and Aleppo as protesters demanded democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners as the Arab Spring reached Syria. Demonstrations were triggered by the arrest and torture of a group of teenage boys a few days earlier in the southwestern city of Deraa over graffiti denouncing al-Assad.

A violent crackdown and repression by the government followed. In July 2011, defectors from the military announced the formation of the Free Syrian Army, an opposition group aiming to overthrow the government, turning the revolt into a ruinous civil war. It ended with the fall of the regime after a lightning offensive by opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

HTS’s leader and interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is now leading the country with the difficult task of organising elections in five years while tackling sectarian violence, Israeli bombing and land grabs, and an economic crisis.

As people were celebrating on Saturday, an explosion in the coastal city of Latakia killed at least three people and injured 12, the state news agency SANA reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group later said the blast was an accident resulting from a resident’s attempt to dismantle unexploded ordnance in a building.

Latakia and Tartous governorates recently saw the heaviest fighting since the fall of al-Assad. The Syrian government said it ended an operation in those coastal areas after four days of fighting between security forces and pro-al-Assad fighters. Hundreds of people were killed.