These aspects include the Syrian revolutionary flag (with three stars) becomes the new independence flag, the national anthem is from a poem by late Syrian diplomat and poet Omar Abu Risha.

Paterson, a longtime home for Syrian Americans, raised the three-star flag of the Syrian revolution before cheering crowds Saturday, six days after the toppling of the Assad regime in Damascus.

The new Syrian flag, similar to the independence flag used from the 1930s to the 1960s — black, green and white with three red stars — hung everywhere. In Damascus, if young people in their ...