The Syrian rebels now in power in Damascus appointed Mohammad al-Bashir as head of a transitional government that will be in place until March 1. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Syrian rebels now in power in Damascus appointed Mohammad al-Bashir as head of a transitional government that will be in place until March 1, state media said Tuesday (December 10, 2024).

Syria civil war LIVE Updates – December 10, 2024

On Sunday (December 8, 2024), the rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized the capital Damascus in a lightning offensive, toppling President Bashar al-Assad who fled the country.

“The general command has tasked us with running the transitional government until March 1,” said a statement attributed to Mr. Bashir on state television’s Telegram account, referring to him as “the new Syrian Prime Minister”.

Before being tapped for the role, he had been head of the rebels’ so-called Salvation Government in northwest Syria and previously held the role of its Development Minister.

Also Tuesday (December 10, 2024), a source within the political affairs department of the Salvation Government told AFP Mr. Bashir would head the transitional government.

The Salvation Government, with its own ministries, departments, judicial and security authorities, was set up in the Idlib bastion in 2017 to assist people in the rebel-held area people cut off from government services.

It has since begun rolling out assistance in Aleppo, the first major city to fall from government hands after the rebels began their offensive.

Damascus stirred back to life on Monday (December 9, 2024) at the start of a hopeful but uncertain era after militants 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 militants milled about in the centre.

Arrangements for a transitional government

The main militant commander Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, met overnight with Mr. Assad’s Prime Minister Mohammed Jalali and Vice-President Faisal Mekdad to discuss arrangements for a transitional government, a source familiar with the discussions said.

Al Jazeera television reported that the transitional authority would be headed by Mohamed Al-Bashir, who ran the administration in a small pocket of rebel-held territory before the 12-day lightning offensive that swept into Damascus.

Syria’s banks would reopen on Tuesday and staff had been asked to return to offices, according to a Syrian central bank source and two commercial bankers. Syria’s currency would continue to be used, they said.

Fighters from the remote countryside milled about in the capital, clustering in the central Umayyad Square before Damascus’s great eight-century mosque.

“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,” said Firdous Omar, who said he had been battling the Assad government since 2011 and was now looking forward to laying down his weapon and returning to his job as a farmer in provincial Idlib.

The advance of a militia alliance spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, was a generational turning point for West Asia.

It ends a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble, swathes of countryside depopulated and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions. Millions of refugees could finally go home from camps across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

Assad’s government collapse

Mr. Assad’s fall wipes out one of the main bastions from which Iran and Russia wielded power across the region. Turkiye, long aligned with Mr. Assad’s foes, emerges strengthened, while Israel hailed it as an outcome of its blows to Mr. Assad’s Iran-backed allies.

The Arab world faces the challenge of reintegrating one of West Asia’s central states, while containing the militant Sunni Islam that underpinned the anti-Assad revolt but has also metastasized into the horrific sectarian violence of Islamic State.

HTS is still designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations, but has spent years trying to soften its image to reassure foreign states and minority groups within Syria.

A New History

The group’s leader Jolani, who spent years in U.S. custody as an insurgent in Iraq but broke with al-Qaeda and Islamic State to align his movement with more mainstream anti-Assad groups, has vowed to rebuild Syria.

“A new history, my brothers, is being written in the entire region after this great victory,” he told a huge crowd at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on Sunday. With hard work Syria would be “a beacon for the Islamic nation”.

Mr. Assad’s Prime Minister Mr. Jalali told Sky New Arabia he was ready to provide documents and assistance for the transfer of power.

The fate of Syria’s Army would be “left to the brothers who will take over the management of the country’s affairs”, Jalali said. “What concerns us today is the continuation of services for Syrians.”

Political prisoners freed

Mr. Assad’s police state was known for generations as one of the harshest in West Asia, holding hundreds of thousands of political prisoners. On Sunday, elated inmates poured out of jails. Reunited families wept in joy. Newly freed prisoners were filmed running through the Damascus streets holding up their hands to show how many years they had been in prison.

The White Helmets rescue organisation said it had dispatched emergency teams to search for hidden underground cells still believed to hold detainees. One of the final areas to fall to the rebels was the Mediterranean coast, heartland of Mr. Assad’s Alawite sect and site of Russia’s naval base.

Looting took place in the coastal city of Latakia on Sunday but had subsided on Monday, residents said, with few people in the streets and shortages of fuel and bread.

Two Alawite residents said that so far the situation had panned out better than they had expected, seemingly without sectarian retribution against Alawites. One said a friend had been visited at home by rebel fighters who told him to hand over any weapons he had, which he did.

Near Latakia, rebels had yet to enter the Assad family’s ancestral village of Qardaha, site of a huge mausoleum for Assad’s father who took power in the 1960s. A resident said all senior figures tied to Assad and his rule had left.

“Only the poor are left here. The rich guys and thieves are gone,” he said.

The Kremlin said it was too early to know the future of Russia’s military bases in Syria, but it would discuss the issue with the new authorities.

Israel, U.S. launch strikes

Israel said Assad’s fall was a direct consequence of Israel’s punishing assault on Iran’s Lebanese allies Hezbollah, who had propped up Assad for years but were decimated since September by an Israeli air and ground campaign.

Since rebels entered Damascus, Israel has struck sites in Syria. Israeli officials said those air strikes would carry on for days, to keep Assad’s former arsenal out of hostile hands.

The Israeli military would “destroy heavy strategic weapons throughout Syria, including surface-to-air missiles, air defence systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets and coastal missiles,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

Israel has also pushed tanks over the border into a demilitarised buffer zone. On Monday the Israeli military published photos of its forces in the Mount Hermon border area.

The United States, which has 900 soldiers on the ground in Syria operating alongside Kurdish-led forces in the east, said its forces hit around 75 targets in air strikes against Islamic State camps and operatives on Sunday.

“There’s a potential that elements in the area, such as ISIS, could try to take advantage of this opportunity and regain capability… Those strikes were focused on those cells,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during a visit to Japan.

The U.S.-backed Kurdish forces have clashed with Turkey-backed rebels in the north. A video, verified by Reuters, showed rebels entering the town of Manbij, captured from the Kurdish forces on Monday.

Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) a flag in Deir al-Zor, after U.S.-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters captured Deir el-Zor, the government’s main foothold in the vast desert, according to Syrian sources, in Syria December 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

At least 26 combattants were killed on Sunday (December 8, 2024) as Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched an offensive on the northern Manbij area, days after seizing a Kurdish-held enclave.

The pro-Turkey fighters had already retaken the Kurdish-held Tal Rifaat enclave last week, days after Islamist-led rebels swooped into government-held areas, snatching key cities before reaching Damascus on Sunday.

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“Pro-Turkish factions… seized large districts of Manbij city in the eastern Aleppo countryside, after violent clashes with the Manbij Military Council,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

The Council is affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that act as a de facto army for the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of Syria’s northeast.

“The clashes killed nine pro-Turkish fighters and at least 17 Manbij Military Council” combattants, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

The US-backed SDF also reported “fierce clashes”, saying the military councils in Manbij and in Al-Bab were “dealing qualitative blows” to Turkish-backed fighters.

The Ankara-backed factions said they had “taken control of the city of Manbij in the eastern countryside of Aleppo after fierce battles”, in a statement on their Telegram channel.

The groups posted videos of the fighters declaring control over Manbij, said to be from inside the area.

AFP could not independently verify the videos.

Earlier Sunday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi hailed “historic” moments with the fall of the “authoritarian regime” of President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, at the White House, in Washington, U.S., December 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

President Joe Biden said on Sunday (December 8, 2024) that the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but it was “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Mideast.

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Speaking at the White House, Mr. Biden said the U.S. was not sure of Assad’s whereabouts, but was monitoring reports he was seeking refuge in Moscow.

Mr. Biden credited action by the U.S. and its allies for weakening Syria’s backers — Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. He said “for the first time” that they could no longer defend Assad’s grip on power.

“Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East,” Mr. Biden said.

Mr. Biden added that United States would engage with “all Syrian groups” over the political transition after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.

“We will engage with all Syrian groups, including within the process led by the United Nations, to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward independent, sovereign” Syria “with a new constitution.”

Joe Biden also warned that some of the rebel groups that ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad have “their own grim record of terrorism,” adding that Washington would assess if they had moderated.

“Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses,” Biden said in an address from the White House.

Mr. Biden added that the United States had “taken note” of recent statements by rebels suggesting they had since moderated, cautioning “we will assess not just their words, but their actions.”

The sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is forcing the Biden administration and the incoming Trump team to confront intensifying questions about the possibility of greater conflicts across the Middle East.

People celebrate and ride motocycles in the Syrian southern city of Daraa on December 7, 2024, after the collapse of government forces. – Syria’s army said it was redeploying in two southern provinces on December 7
| Photo Credit: AFP

Syrian rebels announced they gained full control over the key city of Homs early on Sunday (December 8, 2024) after only a day of fighting, leaving President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread as insurgents marched on the capital, Damascus.

Thousands of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the army withdrew from the central city, dancing and chanting “Assad is gone, Homs is free” and “Long live Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad”.

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Rebels fired into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial control has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the military.

The fall of Homs gives the insurgents control over Syria’s strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal region that is the stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.

Homs’ capture is also a powerful symbol of the rebel movement’s dramatic comeback in the 13-year-old conflict. Swathes of Homs were destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the army years ago. The fighting ground down the insurgents, who were forced out.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the main rebel leader, called the capture of Homs a historic moment and urged fighters not to harm “those who drop their arms”.

Rebels freed thousands of detainees from the city prison. Security forces left in haste after burning their documents.

The battle for control of the country is likely to turn quickly to the capital. Residents of numerous Damascus districts turned out to protest Assad on Saturday evening, and security forces were either unwilling or unable to clamp down.

Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghani said in a statement early Sunday that operations were ongoing to “completely liberate” the countryside around Damascus and rebel forces were looking toward the capital.

In one suburb, a statue of Assad’s father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, was toppled and torn apart.

The Syrian army said it was reinforcing around Damascus, and state television reported on Saturday that Assad remained in the city.

Outside the city, rebels swept across the entire southwest over 24 hours and established control.

Syrian government forces have lost control of Daraa city, a war monitor said, in another stunning blow for President Bashar al-Assad’s rule after rebels wrested other key cities from his grip.

Daraa was dubbed “the cradle of the revolution” early in Syria’s civil war, after activists accused the government of detaining and torturing a group of boys for scribbling anti-Assad graffiti on their school walls in 2011.

While Aleppo and Hama, the two other main cities taken from government control in recent days, fell to an Islamist-led rebel alliance, Daraa fell to local armed groups, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“Local factions have taken control of more areas in Daraa province, including Daraa city… they now control more than 90% of the province, as regime forces successively pulled out,” the Britain-based Observatory said late Friday, which relies on a network of sources around Syria.

Daraa province borders Jordan.

Despite a truce brokered by Assad ally Russia, it has been plagued by unrest in recent years, with frequent attacks, clashes and assassinations.

Waves of violence

Syria’s civil war, which began with Assad’s crackdown on democracy protests, has killed more than 500,000 people and forced more than half the population to flee their homes.

Never in the war had Assad’s forces lost control of so many key cities in such a short space of time.

Since a rebel alliance led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched its offensive on November 27, the government has lost second city Aleppo and subsequently Hama in central Syria.

The rebels were on Friday at the gates of Homs, Syria’s third city, as the government pulled out its troops from Deir Ezzor in the east to redeploy towards to the centre.

In an interview published on Friday, the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, said the aim of the offensive was to overthrow Assad.

“When we talk about objectives, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve that goal,” Jolani told CNN.

HTS is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. Proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments, it has sought to soften its image in recent years.

According to Fabrice Balanche, a lecturer at France’s Lumiere Lyon 2 university, HTS now controls 20,000 square kilometres (more than 7,700 square miles) of territory, nearly seven times as much as it did before the offensive started.

Sudden withdrawal

As the army and its Iran-backed militia allies pulled out of Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, Kurdish-led forces said they crossed the Euphrates and took control of the territory that had been vacated.

The Observatory said government troops and their allies withdrew “suddenly” from the east and headed towards the oasis town of Palmyra on the desert road to Homs.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who are backed by the United States, expressed readiness for dialogue with both Turkey and the rebels, saying the offensive heralded a “new” political reality for Syria.

The rebels launched their offensive the same day a ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Lebanese militant group has been an important Assad ally, alongside Russia and Iran.

Turkey, which has backed the opposition, said it would hold talks with Russia and Iran in Qatar this weekend.

Ahead of the talks, the top diplomats of Iran, Iraq and Syria met in Baghdad, where Syria’s Bassam al-Sabbagh accused the government’s enemies of seeking to “redraw the political map”.

Iran’s Abbas Araghchi pledged to provide Assad’s government with “whatever [support] is needed”.

Fear

In Homs, scene of some of the war’s deadliest violence, tens of thousands of members of Assad’s Alawite minority were fleeing, fearing the rebels’ advance, residents and the Britain-based Observatory said.

Syrians who were forced out of the country years ago by the initial crackdown on the revolt were glued to their phones as they watched current developments unfold.

“We’ve been dreaming of this for more than a decade,” said Yazan, a 39-year-old former activist who now lives in France.

Asked whether he was worried about HTS’s Islamist agenda, he said: “It doesn’t matter to me who is conducting this. The devil himself could be behind it. What people care about is who is going to liberate the country.”

On the other side of the sectarian divide, Haidar, 37, who lives in an Alawite-majority neighbourhood, told AFP by telephone that “fear is the umbrella that covers Homs now”.

The army shelled the advancing rebels as Syrian and Russian aircraft struck from the skies. At least 20 civilians, including five children, were killed in the bombardment, the war monitor added.

‘Massive blow’

At least 826 people, mostly combatants but also including 111 civilians, have been killed since the offensive began last week, according to the Observatory’s figures, while the United Nations said the violence has displaced 280,000 people.

Many of the scenes witnessed in recent days would have been unimaginable earlier in the war.

In Hama, an AFP photographer saw residents set fire to a giant poster of Assad on the facade of city hall.

“Our joy is indescribable, and we wish this for every honourable Syrian to experience these happy moments that we have been deprived of since birth,” said Hama resident Ghiath Suleiman.

Online footage verified by AFP showed residents toppling a statue of Assad’s father Hafez, under whose brutal rule the army carried out a massacre in the city in the 1980s.

Aron Lund, a fellow of the Century International think tank, called the loss of Hama “a massive, massive blow to the Syrian government”.

Should Assad lose Homs, it wouldn’t mean the end of his rule, Lund said, but “with no secure route from Damascus to the coast, I’d say it’s over as a credible state entity”.

Internally displaced people arrive at a camp in Tabqa city, Raqqa governorate, northern Syria
| Photo Credit: AP

Thousands of people fled the Central Syrian City of Homs overnight and into Friday (December 6, 2024) morning, a war monitor and residents said, as rebel forces sought to push their lightning offensive against Government forces further south.

They have already captured the key cities of Aleppo in the north and Hama in the center, dealing successive devastating blows to President Bashar Al-Assad, nearly 14 years after protests against him erupted across Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based war monitor, said thousands of people had begun fleeing on Thursday (December 5, 2024) night towards Syria’s western coastal regions, a stronghold of the Government.

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A resident of the coastal area said thousands of people had begun arriving there from Homs, fearing the rebels’ fast-paced advance. On Friday morning, Israeli air strikes hit two border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said. Russian bombing overnight also destroyed the Rustan bridge along the key M5 highway, to prevent rebels from using this main route to Homs city, a Syrian army officer told Reuters.

“There were at least eight strikes on the bridge,” he added. Government forces were working to beef up positions around Homs city with fresh reinforcements, he said. Rebels led by the Islamist faction Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham had pledged to move on to the central city of Homs, a crossroads city that links the capital Damascus to the north and Assad’s heartland along the coast.

“Your time has come,” said a rebel operations room in an online post, calling on Homs residents to rise up in revolution.