Region

BAGHDAD — Iraq said it would begin repatriating on Thursday Syrian troops who fled a lightning offensive that precipitated the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.

"Today, the Iraqi authorities will start returning Syrian soldiers to their country after coordinating with the relevant Syrian authorities in this regard," interior ministry spokesman Miqdad Miri said.

Assad fled Syria as an offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) closed in on Damascus, more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests morphed into one of the deadliest wars of the century.

Taking city after city in a matter of days, the Islamist-led rebels faced little resistance and reached Damascus on December 8.

At the time, an Iraqi security source said hundreds of Syrian soldiers who fled the front lines had been allowed through the Al-Qaim border crossing. Some had been wounded, the source said.

On Thursday, Miri said the soldiers would be repatriated through the same crossing.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Iraqi official said the repatriation would take place under "the supervision of international organisations".

Syria's new rulers have put out a call to soldiers and police to lay down their arms and register with the authorities.

Iraqi Deputy Commander of Joint Operations Lieutenant General Qais al-Mohammadawi told Iraqi media on Wednesday that the soldiers had had their "names, equipment and weapons carefully inventoried". 

DAMASCUS — The UN envoy to Syria called on Wednesday for "free and fair" elections after the ouster of president Bashar Al Assad, as he voiced hope for a political solution for Kurdish-held areas.

Assad fled Syria following a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), more than 13 years after his crackdown on democracy protests precipitated one of the deadliest wars of the century.

He left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, and the collapse of his rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond.

Years of civil war have also left the country heavily dependent on aid, deeply fragmented, and desperate for justice and peace.

Addressing reporters in Damascus, UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said "there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria".

"A new Syria that... will adopt a new constitution... and that we will have free and fair elections when that time comes, after a transitional period," he said.

Calling for immediate humanitarian assistance, he also said he hoped to see an end to international sanctions levied against Syria over Assad's abuses.

Pedersen said a key challenge was the situation in Kurdish-held areas in Syria's northeast, amid fears of a major escalation between the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkey-backed groups.

Turkey accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants at home, whom both Washington and Ankara consider a "terrorist" group.

The United States said Tuesday it had brokered an extension to a fragile ceasefire in the flashpoint town of Manbij and was seeking a broader understanding with Turkey.

"I'm very pleased that the truce has been renewed and that it seems to be holding, but hopefully we will see a political solution to that issue," Pedersen said.

 'We want to know' 

Rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda and proscribed as a terrorist organisation by several Western governments, HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric by assuring protection for the country's many religious and ethnic minorities.

It has appointed a transitional leadership that will run the country until March 1.

HTS military chief Murhaf Abu Qasra said Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the country's new leadership, adding that the group rejects federalism.

"Syria will not be divided," he told AFP, adding that "the Kurdish people are one of the components of the Syrian people."

HTS has also vowed justice for the crimes committed under Assad's rule, including the disappearance of tens of thousands of people into the complex web of detention centres and prisons that was used for decades to silence dissent.

"We want to know where our children are, our brothers," said 55-year-old Ziad Alaywi, standing by a ditch near the town of Najha, southeast of Damascus.

It is one of the locations where Syrians believe the bodies of prisoners tortured to death were buried -- acts that international organisations say could constitute crimes against humanity.

"Were they killed? Are they buried here?" he asked.

Syrian civil defence official Ammar al-Salmo said unidentified human remains had been discovered in a medicine warehouse just 50 metres (yards) from the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, a revered pilgrimage destination for Shiite Muslims in the southern suburbs of Damascus.

The area was heavily guarded by pro-Iran fighters before Islamist-led rebels captured the capital on December 8.

"In the warehouse, we found a refrigerated room containing decomposing corpses," Salmo said, adding that some appeared to have died more than a year and a half earlier.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, more than 100,000 people died or were killed in custody from 2011.

 'Direct engagement' 

The country's new rulers have sought to keep its institutions going and, on Wednesday, a commercial flight took off from Damascus airport to Aleppo, the first since Assad was toppled and fled to Russia.

They have also stepped up contacts with countries that had long seen Assad as a pariah, and with international institutions.

EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen said the bloc would intensify its "direct engagement" with the new administration.

Members of the UN Security Council, which Russia as well as the United States, called on Tuesday for an "inclusive and Syrian-led" political process.

"This political process should meet the legitimate aspirations of all Syrians, protect all of them and enable them to peacefully, independently and democratically determine their own futures," a statement said.

It also "underlined the need for Syria and its neighbours to mutually refrain from any action... that could undermine each other's security".

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets since Assad's overthrow in what it says is a bid to prevent them falling into hostile hands.

Israeli troops also occupied strategic positions in a UN-patrolled buffer zone in a move UN chief Antonio Guterres described as a breach of a 1974 armistice.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — Syria's conflict "has not ended" even after the departure of former president Bashar Al Assad, the UN's envoy to the country warned Tuesday, highlighting clashes between Turkish-backed and Kurdish groups in the north.

Geir Pedersen, the UN's special envoy for Syria, also called at the Security Council for Israel to "cease all settlement activity in the occupied Syrian Golan" and said an end to sanctions would be key to assisting Syria.

"There have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, before a ceasefire was brokered... A five-day ceasefire has now expired and I am seriously concerned about reports of military escalation," he said.

"Such an escalation could be catastrophic."

Pedersen also said he had met with Syria's new de facto leadership following the rebels' lightning takeover, and toured Sednaya prison's "dungeons" and "torture and execution chambers," operated under Assad's government.

He called for "broad support" for Syria and an end to sanctions to allow for reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

"Concrete movement on an inclusive political transition will be key in ensuring Syria receives the economic support it needs," Pedersen said. 

Syria's new rulers stepped up engagement on Tuesday with countries that deemed ousted president Assad a pariah, with the French flag raised at the embassy for the first time in over a decade.

Assad fled Syria just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned tanks and other equipment in the face of a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS).

The collapse of Assad's rule on December 8 stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 led to one of the deadliest wars of the century.

Rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda, HTS is proscribed by several Western governments as a terrorist organisation, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric and pledged to protect the country's religious minorities.

The EU will reopen its mission in Syria following "constructive" talks with its new leadership, the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, describing it as a "very important step".

Turkey and Qatar, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, have reopened embassies in Damascus, while US and British officials have launched communications with Syria's new leaders.

France, an early backer of the uprising, sent a delegation to Damascus on Tuesday, with special envoy Jean-Francois Guillaume saying his country was preparing to stand with Syrians during the transitional period.

An AFP journalist saw the French flag raised in the embassy's entrance hall for the first time since the mission was shuttered in 2012.

After meeting Syria's new leaders, the United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday he was "encouraged", and that there was a "basis for ambitious scaling-up of vital humanitarian support".

German diplomats were also in Damascus on Tuesday, while Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said her country was ready to engage with the new leadership.

Syria came under international sanctions over Assad's crackdown on protests, which sparked a war that killed more than 500,000 people and forced half of the population to flee their homes.

Assad left behind a country scarred by decades of torture, disappearances and summary executions, as well as economic mismanagement that has left 70 percent of the population in need of aid.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who heads HTS, stressed the need in a meeting with a delegation of British diplomats to end "all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country".

He also said Syria's rebel factions will be "disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defence ministry".

"Syria must remain united," he said, according to posts on the group's Telegram channel. "There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice".

The EU's Kallas said the lifting of sanctions and removing HTS from its blacklist would depend on "when we see positive steps, not the words, but actual steps and deeds from the new leadership".

The United Nations expects one million people to return to Syria in the first half of 2025, after the war pushed six million people to seek refuge abroad.

 'Colour of peace' 

In Damascus's old souk, many shops had reopened more than a week since Assad's ouster, according to an AFP journalist.

Some shopkeepers were painting their store facades white, erasing the colours of the old Syrian flag that under Assad's rule had become ubiquitous.

"We have been working non-stop for a week to paint everything white," Omar Bashur, a 61-year-old artisan said.

"White is the colour of peace," he added.

Abu Imad, another vendor, was selling vegetables from his car at a square in central Damascus.

"Everything happened at once: the regime fell, prices dropped, life got better. We hope it isn't temporary," he said.

With Assad gone, the Syrian pound started to recover against the dollar, moneychangers and traders said, as foreign currencies again became available on the local market.

Iran, which backed Assad throughout the civil war, said its embassy in Syria -- abandoned and vandalised in the wake of Assad's fall -- would reopen once the "necessary conditions" are met.

Russia was the other main backer of Assad's rule.

On Monday, the ousted president broke his silence with a statement on Telegram saying that he only left to Russia once Damascus had fallen, and denounced the country's new leaders as "terrorists".

"My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles," said the statement.

Several former officials had told AFP that Assad was already out of the country hours before the rebels seized Damascus.

 'My tears were dry' 

Around the country, Syrians deprived for years of news of missing loved ones searched desperately for clues that might help them find closure.

In a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, Radwan Adwan was stacking stones to rebuild his father's grave, finally able to return to the cemetery.

"Without the fall of the regime, it would have been impossible to see my father's grave again," said 45-year-old Adwan.

Yarmuk camp was bombed and besieged by Assad's forces, emptied of most of its residents and reduced to ruins before its recapture in 2018, when access to the cemetery was officially banned.

"When we arrived, there was no trace of the grave," said Adwan.

His mother Zeina sat on a small metal chair in front of her husband's gravesite.

She was "finally" able to weep for him, she said. "Before, my tears were dry."

DAMASCUS — Governments worldwide are stepping up efforts to engage with Syria's new interim rulers, just over a week after Islamist-led rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad, ending decades of brutal rule and civil war.

The lightning offensive that captured the capital Damascus on December 8 led to celebrations across the country and beyond.

At Damascus university on Sunday, Yasmin Shehab told AFP that she and fellow students felt "optimistic".

"We feel liberated, and the chains have been broken," she said. "Fear has been shattered."

But the surprise ouster caught many governments by surprise, and has left them scrambling for a new policy.

Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the extremist group that led the offensive, is rooted in Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, and is still designated a terrorist group by several Western governments.

Diplomats, including UN envoy Geir Pedersen who was in Syria on Sunday, have urged an inclusive new administration focused on nation-building and justice.

Pedersen met with HTS chief and called for "justice and accountability for crimes".

"We need to make sure that that goes through a credible justice system, and that we don't see any revenge," he said.

A Qatari delegation also landed in Syria on Sunday to meet transitional government officials and pledge "full commitment to supporting the Syrian people."

Qatar's embassy is set to resume operations Tuesday, 13 years after it closed in the early stages of an anti-government uprising that sparked years of civil war.

Unlike other Arab countries, Qatar never restored ties with Assad's Syria.

Aid and diplomacy

It comes after Turkey, a key backer of some of the rebel groups that ousted Assad, reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday.

Both Britain and the United States also confirmed they were in touch with HTS despite officially considering the organisation a terrorist group.

"We can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact," British Foreign Minister David Lammy said as he announced an aid package for Syrians.

A French diplomatic team is also due in Damascus on Tuesday to "retake possession of our real estate" and make "initial contact" with the new authorities, said acting Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

They will also be "evaluating the urgent needs of the population", he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile said his country was coordinating on providing aid including wheat, flour and oil to Syria.

Torture, death threats

Rebels entered Damascus after an 11-day offensive that came over a decade into the civil war sparked by Assad's violent crackdown on anti-government protests which erupted in 2011.

The war has killed upwards of 500,000 people and displaced more than half the country's population.

Assad's departure has seens notorious jails thrown open and prisoners recount the abuses they suffered.

"Towards the end I just wanted to die, waiting for when they would execute us," Ghazi Mohammed al-Mohammed told AFP of his five months in detention.

He was never told why he was arrested, but said he faced torture and death threats in detention.

 'Massive destruction'

A cautious sense of calm is returning to many cities, with children in Damascus streaming back to school on Sunday -- the first day of the week in Syria -- for the first time since Assad fled.

Damascus's interim governor acknowledged that major obstacles lay ahead.

"The challenges we are facing right now are the massive destruction of the institutional structure in terms of human resources, local economy, and the social structure," said Maher Marwan.

"This is a reality that requires great effort and awareness, in addition to solidarity by everyone at this phase."

UN envoy Pedersen called for "increased, immediate" aid during his Damascus visit.

Turkey was ready to provide military support to the new Islamist-led government, Defence Minister Yasar Guler said Sunday, Turkish media reported.

The new leadership should be given "a chance", he added.

HTS has sought to moderate its rhetoric in recent years, but its seizure of power has sparked some concern over the protection of religious and ethnic minorities.

Syrian Christians attending their first Sunday church service since Assad's fall said they were largely reassured so far.

"Thank God, our situation is good," said Ibtissam Al Khouli at a Damascus church.

"Everyone feels comfortable, there's no fear," she told AFP.

The interim government insists they will protect the rights of all Syrians, and the rule of law.

Russian evacuation

Assad was propped up by key allies including Lebanon's Hizbollah militant group, Iran, and Russia, whose foreign ministry said Sunday it had evacuated some diplomatic staff from Syria.

They left "by a special flight of the Russian Air Force from the Hmeimim airbase," the ministry said.

The rebel advance began on November 27, as a ceasefire took effect in the Israel-Hizbollah war in Lebanon, which battered the militant group.

Both Israel and Turkey have carried out military strikes inside Syria since Assad's fall.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted his country has "no interest in confronting Syria", despite carrying out hundreds of strikes over the past week.

"Israel's policy toward Syria will be determined by the evolving reality on the ground," he said in a video statement.

Those strikes continued early Monday, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reporting raids on military sites in the country's coastal Tartus region.

The UK-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said the raids were "the heaviest strikes" in the area in more than a decade.

Israel has also ordered troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, a move denounced by Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and which the UN said violated a 1974 armistice.

And Israel's government on Sunday approved a plan to double the population in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

TEL AVIV — The Israeli military said sirens sounded across central Israel on Monday as it intercepted a missile in an attack later claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

It was the last of several attacks launched by the Iran-backed Houthis against Israel from Yemen since the war in Gaza began more than a year ago.

"One missile launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory," the military said in a statement.

An AFP journalist reported that sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, the main commercial hub.

The Houthis later said they had "carried out a military operation targeting a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa", a reference to the Tel Aviv area.

The group, which controls most of Yemen's population centres including its capital Sanaa, added the "operation had successfully achieved its objectives".

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service said it had not received any calls about any casualties from the missile interception.

Earlier on Monday in a separate incident, an Israeli navy missile boat intercepted a drone in the Mediterranean after it was launched from Yemen, the military said.

The Houthi rebels say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.

In their Monday statement, the Yemeni rebels said their "operations will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops and the seige is lifted".

On December 9, a drone claimed by Houthis exploded on the top floor of a residential building in the central Israel city of Yavne, causing no casualties.

In July, a Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.

The Houthis have also regularly targeted shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, leading to retaliatory strikes on Houthi targets by United States and sometimes British forces.

DAMASCUS — It has been a week since rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other rebels toppled long-time strongman Bashar al-Assad.

Here are the main developments on Syria over the past 24 hours:

Schools, universities begin reopening

Uniformed children could be seen returning to school in Syria's Damascus on Sunday, attending class for the first time since Assad's overthrow.

An employee at one school said that "no more than 30 per cent" of schoolchildren were back in class on Sunday, but that "these numbers will rise gradually".

Universities also reopened, but staff says it may take a while for a return to their normal capacity.

Turkey says ready to provide military support

Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler said on Sunday his country was ready to provide military support to Syria's new Rebels-led government if it is requested.

He said the new leadership should be given "a chance" and that Turkey was "ready to provide the necessary support" if needed, in remarks reported by state news agency Anadolu and other Turkish media outlets.

Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, 12 years after the diplomatic mission closed early in Syria's civil war.

Ankara has been a major player in Syria's conflict, financing armed groups in the northwest and maintaining a working relationship with HTS.

Meanwhile, Turkey's interior minister said more than 7,600 Syrian migrants crossed the Turkish border to return home in the five days after Assad's fall.

Turkey is home to nearly three million refugees who fled Syria after the start of the civil war in 2011, with the fall of Assad raising hopes many would return home.

 UN envoy in Damascus

United Nations special envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen called for "justice and accountability" in the country, rather than acts of "revenge" after arriving in Damascus on Sunday.

He also called for "increased, immediate" aid to the war-ravaged country.

A Qatari delegation was also due in Syria Sunday to meet transitional government officials for talks on aid and reopening its embassy.

Unlike other Arab states, Qatar never restored diplomatic ties with Assad after a rupture in 2011.

US opens contact with HTS

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed Saturday that Washington had made contact with Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels, despite previously designating the group as terrorists.

"We've been in contact with HTS and with other parties," Blinken told reporters after talks on Syria in the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba.

He did not give details on how the contact took place but when asked if the United States reached out directly, he said: "Direct contact, yes."

The United States and other Western governments classify HTS as a terrorist group due to its roots in Al-Qaeda's Syria branch

Blinken said that the easing of US sanctions on Syria imposed during Assad's rule would depend on "sustained action" by the rebel-installed interim government to meet the expectations of the international community.

 Main players agree common approach

In Aqaba; the participants in the talks with Blinken issued a joint statement calling for a Syrian-led transition to "produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government formed through a transparent process".

It also stressed "respect for human rights", the importance of combating "terrorism and extremism" and demanded "all parties" cease hostilities in Syria.

HTS says Syria too exhausted for war

HTS leader criticised Israel for its incursion into southern Syria this week but said his country was too exhausted for fresh conflict.

"The Israelis have clearly crossed the disengagement line in Syria, which threatens a new unjustified escalation in the region," he said, adding that despite the violation, "the general exhaustion in Syria after years of war and conflict does not allow us to enter new conflicts."

Israeli troops entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights last weekend in a move the United Nations said violated the 1974 armistice agreement.

 Hizbollah admits Syria supply lines cut

The leader of Iran-backed Hizbollah, Naim Qassem, acknowledged his Lebanese group can no longer be supplied militarily through Syria after Rebels-led rebels toppled its ally Assad.

"Hizbollah lost a military supply line via Syria," Qassem said, adding that "the resistance must adapt to the circumstances".

TRIPOLI — A key oil refinery in western Libya suspended operations after armed clashes erupted early on Sunday, causing fires in several storage units, the state petrol company said.

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) "declares a force majeure... because several Zawiya refinery storage tanks sustained significant damage from gunfire... that led to serious fires", it said in a statement.

Videos posted on social media showed several burning oil tanks at the refinery in Zawiya, some 45 kilometres west of the capital Tripoli.

It is the only refinery supplying the local market with fuel products.

"This damage is a direct consequence of armed clashes using light and medium weapons in the refinery's vicinity," the NOC statement said.

It said that despite the clashes continuing, emergency personnel "were able to bring the fires and gas leaks under control, and limit the spread of danger".

News sites in Libya reported one person dead and 10 wounded in the clashes, although there was no official confirmation of the toll.

"All of the fires in the refinery's storage units that were hit in the clashes have been brought under control," NOC spokesman Khaled Ghulam said on Libya al-Ahrar television.

"We can assure the citizens of Zawiya and Tripoli that fuel supplies to the Brega Oil distribution company's tanks is secure, and that petrol deliveries to service stations will continue without disruption."

The Zawiya refinery, built in 1974, is Libya's second largest with a refining capacity of more than 120,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Zawiya city is the third largest in Libya's Tripolitania region, after the capital and Misrata.

It has seen fierce clashes between armed factions. In May, fighting between rival groups killed one person and wounded a dozen before tribal chiefs and other notables intervened.

Sunday's fighting prompted the closure of classes in all schools and at Zawiya university, the official Libyan News Agency reported.

The coast road linking the city to Tripoli has reopened after being closed until the early morning.

The state of force majeure, invoked in exceptional circumstances, allows the NOC exemption from liability in the event it cannot comply with oil delivery contracts.

Libya has Africa's most abundant hydrocarbon reserves but is struggling to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

There have been frequent blockades of oil installations, often because of social demands or political disputes.

However, thanks to calmer security conditions and new investment, production which had hovered for a decade at around 1.2 million bpd had risen to 1.4 million bpd in early December.

Pre-uprising output was between 1.5 million bpd and 1.6 million bpd.

TEHRAN — Iran announced the closure of offices and schools in many provinces across the country on Sunday due to a cold snap and energy shortages, state media reported.

Iran is an energy giant, with the world's second-largest reserves of natural gas, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

But the country has been forced to ration electricity in recent weeks due to a lack of gas and fuel to feed its power plants.

Schools and public offices were closed down in the northern provinces of Gilan, Golestan and Ardabil as well as Alborz west of the capital Tehran "due to the cold weather and in order to manage fuel consumption," official news agency IRNA said.

It reported that similar decisions were taken due to the cold in several other provinces including Tehran and Mazandaran in the north, Kermanshah in the west, Ghazvin in the centre and South Khorasan in the east.

In recent days, unexpected power cuts have affected several provinces as well as the capital Tehran, leading to the frustration of the citizens.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday urged citizens to use "two degrees less" heating to save energy, in what has already become a campaign promoted by his government.

Iran was the world's seventh-largest producer of crude oil in 2022 and has the third-largest proven reserves behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

But Iran's electricity grid suffers from a lack of investment in infrastructure, partly due to Western sanctions.

In July, authorities ordered the working hours to be halved for several days in government institutions to save energy, that time in the middle of a heat wave.