Image source, Getty Images

Let's bring you some more images and details of the tomb of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's father which has been was torched in his hometown of Qardaha.

The tomb also houses the graves of Bashar al-Assad's wife Anisa and eldest son Bassel.

Examining footage from the AFP news agency taken today it shows rebel fighters in fatigues and young men watching parts of the tomb - including a coffin - burn.

According to the UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) rebels set fire to the mausoleum, located in the Latakia heartland of Assad's Alawite community.

The footage also shows parts of the mausoleum ablaze and damaged.

Armed rebel fighters have also posed for a picture on the burnt gravesite of Hafez al-Assad at the family's ancestral village.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

The UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has more details on former President Bashar al-Assad leaving the country.

It says Russia refused a request from Assad to establish a statelet on the Syrian coast which it considered to be a project to divide Syria.

According to SOHR sources, Assad fled to Russia on his plane and refused to deliver a speech about stepping down from power.

He had also been counting on Iran's support and backing.

Image source, Getty Images

Some images coming to us from the western Syrian Latakia province where rebel fighters have been pictured standing next to the burning gravesite of late president Hafez al-Assad.

Part of the tomb of the father of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad has been set on fire - including a coffin which appears to have been dragged outside and set alight.

Assad's father and predecessor died in 2000 and had been laid to rest at his mausoleum in the family's ancestral village of Qardaha.

Nafiseh Kohnavard
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Damascus

We can now bring you more from BBC Middle East correspondent Nafiseh Kohnavard from Damascus.

As an Iranian woman that "advice" sounds familiar. I grew up in Iran under Islamic rules and had to wear headscarf.

Our Syrian driver Wael feels uncomfortable.

"They say they are not going to interfere [in] people’s lifestyles but this might be the beginning," he says when we leave Abul Hammam.

Wael, a Sunni Muslim from Damascus, says he has three daughters and has never told them how to practice their faith.

Our fixer, Majd, feels the same way. "My girlfriend is Christian. I’m worried about her."

"We are happy that Assad is gone but we are concerned about these things," he adds.

For me, it feels like déjà vu. I was six years old when wearing a headscarf became mandatory in all schools while I was in a French school in Uroumia, Iran. I remember vividly how our pink uniforms turned to black uniforms overnight and we had to wear hijab.

So far, the interim government has said they want to form a government that will cater for all Syrians, from all sects.

This was also the case at the beginning of Iran's revolution, when many didn't expect that there would be an Islamic republic imposing Sharia laws on people.

Nafiseh Kohnavard
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Damascus

On our way to Damascus’ main Umayyad Square, I meet Abul Hammam, a Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighter, and his cousin Mohammad.

They hug each other tightly, meeting after 15 years apart.

Abul Hammam, 30, originally from Damascus, says he was fighting in Aleppo for years at the beginning of the Syrian revolution where he joined HTS. He has been in Azerbaijan for some years.

I speak to him in Azeri a little.

"Your name is Arabic but you are not Arab. Where are you from?" he asks me.

I cautiously tell him that I am originally from Iran’s West Azerbaijan.

He smiles, saying: "Many of our ancestors are from Balkan and old Soviet Union countries near Iran. I like Iranian people but not the regime. We fought with them."

He goes on to ask me whether I am a Christian – I smile, trying to avoid talking about religion. He continues: "May I give you a brotherly nice advice? Do you have headscarf?"

I say yes I have it with me.

"I think you will be nicer if you wear it as a Muslim woman," he says.

Out of respect and for security reasons I take my headscarf and cover a part of my hair similar to how I would wear it in Iran.

"If you bring it further and cover all, it will [be] much better," Hammam adds.

We'll have more on Nafiseh's reaction to the exchange shortly.

Shops have reopened in the Syrian capital, government staff are reported to have gone back to work and day-to-day life in Damascus is gradually resuming.

It comes after Mohammed al-Bashir was appointed as the transitional PM by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the rebel group that swept into the capital over the weekend.

The BBC's Sally Nabil has been to the streets of Damascus speaking to Syrians.

Image source, UK Government

The head of the UK's intelligence agency, Anne Keast-Butler, says it's "really early days" to judge what is happening in Syria.

"That's why we need to really monitor the situation, understand intent and direction, and make sure we can inform policy makers and other decision makers," she tells BBC Breakfast.

Her comments follow the UK government's decision on Monday to pause decisions on Syrian asylum claims. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the situation was "moving extremely fast after the fall of the Assad regime" and some people were returning to Syria following recent developments.

The charity Asylum Aid said it was "extremely concerned" by the decision and described the move as "premature" given that it could leave thousands of people in "limbo".

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Aleppo

Image source, BBC/Hugo Bachega

Aleppo was the first major city to be captured by the rebels in their astonishing offensive earlier this month.

Before the war, this was Syria's commercial hub, and a major tourist attraction.

I visited this city for the first time as a student, in 2008. I remember seeing billboards and posters with the face of Bashar al-Assad in public squares, streets and government buildings.

Now, they have been burned or ripped to shreds, a symbolic gesture to mark the fall of the regime.

On the drive from the Turkish border, we passed through half a dozen checkpoints, where fighters looked relaxed, and saw destruction on a scale that is hard to describe.

Almost nothing has been left untouched by the war. Houses and buildings, too many to count, have been flattened or damaged beyond repair. Towns and villages lie empty, uninhabitable.

In the city itself, streets were relatively busy, and most shops were open. There were billboards of the Military Operations Command, the HTS-led alliance of opposition forces in Syria.

One of them had chains around two wrists with the message: "Freeing detainees is a debt upon our necks".

As the new Syrian PM calls for stability and calm in the region, in the last few moments Qatar announced it intends to re-open its embassy in Damascus soon - more than a decade after it was stormed by supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The adviser to the prime minister and official spokesman for the foreign ministry, Dr Majed Al-Ansari, says Qatar "will soon reopen its embassy in the sisterly Syrian Arab Republic after completing the necessary arrangements".

In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Dr Al-Ansari said the step "comes to strengthen the historical and close fraternal relations between the two countries and the two brotherly peoples".

The spokesman also believes Syrians are "looking forward to building their state on the foundations of justice, peace, stability and prosperity".

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

In the last hour, we've heard from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter Terrorism, who warns new Syrian authorities “have to look in their own backyard” if they are “genuine about making a new start”.

It's positive that the new government is committed to bringing to justice perpetrators of violence over recent years, Ben Saul says, but adds "justice must be blind".

"It must bring to account anybody who committed violations, which includes HTS itself and other rebel forces and armed groups," Saul tells the BBC News Channel.

He says "a whole new justice system" must be built in Syria, after judges and courts were captured by the Assad regime.

"We don't know what that's going to look like," Saul says, suggesting it could involve Islamic law or include international assistance.

Image source, Getty Images

Let's bring you some remarks which have come to us in the last few hours from Iran and Russia - some of former President Bashar al-Assad's closest allies.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the United States and Israel of being behind the overthrow of Assad and insisted that Iran would not be weakened by Assad's presidential fall.

He also implied the involvement of a "neighbouring state of Syria" - but did not name the country.

Elsewhere, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman described the safety of its citizens in Syria as an "absolute priority", according to the state-run TASS news agency.

Maria Zakharova told Radio Sputnik: "The situation in Syria is dramatic, the main thing is that it does not turn from dramatic into totally tragic."

Zakharova added that Russia is in contact with various local forces to that effect.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Pope Francis says he prays people in Syria "may live in peace and security" and "mutual respect" during his weekly general audience, the AFP news agency reports.

"I pray... that the Syrian people may live in peace and security in their beloved land and the different religions may walk together in friendship and mutual respect for the good of that nation afflicted by so many years of war," he tells the audience.

"I hope that a political solution will be reached that without further conflicts and divisions will responsibly promote the stability and unity of the country", he adds.

Numerous Syrian refugees have been returning to Syria from Turkey and Lebanon since the fall of the Assad regime.

Many are pictured loaded with personal belongings and some are carrying young children across the border.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Iran and Syria have been allies since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979 and Syria reinforced the alliance by backing Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

During the Syrian civil war, Iran is believed to have deployed hundreds of troops and spent billions of dollars to help Assad.

Thousands of Shia Muslim fighters armed, trained and financed by Iran - mostly from the Lebanon-based Hezbollah movement, but also from Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen - have also fought alongside the Syrian army.

But more recently, Iran-backed Hezbollah was weakened by conflict with Israel in Lebanon, likely hastening the downfall of the Syrian military although Tehran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, today has blamed the toppling of Assad's regime on the US and Israel.

Arman Sharifi
BBC Monitoring

Image source, EPA

Iranian mainstream media outlets today raise the alarm at what they see as Israel’s push into Syrian territory. Front page pictures show scenes of destruction meted out by Israeli air strikes against Syrian military targets.

State TV's rolling news channel IRINN says Israel wants to see Syria partitioned along ethnic and religious lines. The TV criticises ruling rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) for not addressing the Israeli invasion and the fact that "no bullet has been fired to defend Syrian soil".

Echoing this, ultraconservative daily newspaper Keyhan says the US and Israel are "destroying Syria while Tahrir al-Sham terrorists are watching!, external".

Keyhan’s editorial talks of “the beginning of Shia genocide”, saying “terrorists are creating fear and carrying out assassinations on the streets”.

The daily Vatan-e Emrouz asks how the armed groups now in power “will respond to the Israeli aggression, external”? Several papers warn that Israeli forces are close to Damascus.

Government-run daily Iran interprets Israel's moves as an aggressive expansionist attempt to exploit Syria's internal crisis, external while pursuing a long-term strategy of regional dominance.

In a separate commentary, the Iran newspaper says Tehran can regain influence in Syria, external by adjusting its foreign policy strategy. It suggests fostering ties with influential Islamic factions and emphasising Syria's territorial integrity.

Israel, which borders Syria, says it has sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

BBC Verify has taken a close look at what footage online can tell us about Israel's ongoing operations in Syria.

Watch Merlyn Thomas talk you through what it indicates below:

Image source, getty

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) reports that for the fourth day in a row Israel has targeted the Syrian military arsenal.

Israeli warplanes launched raids on a number of radar sites across Syria overnight and destroyed aircraft and radar equipment at Deir al-Zour military airport, the SOHR says.

Since the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday, Israel has carried out more than 352 air strikes on 13 Syrian provinces, according to the war monitor.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has destroyed around 80% of the Assad regime's military, with more than 350 strikes against "strategic targets" in Syria - including in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia, and Palmyra.

Yogita Limaye
Reporting from Ghouta, Damascus

Image source, Aamir Peerzada/BBC

Tawfiq Diam is emotional because it's the first time he's been able to speak freely about what happened to his family back in 2018, in Douma in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus.

"If I'd spoken out before, Bashar al-Assad's forces would have cut off my tongue. They would have slit my throat. We were not allowed to talk about it," he says.

Tawfiq's wife and his four children aged between eight and 12 - Joudy, Mohammed, Ali and Qamar - were killed in a chemical attack on 7 April 2018.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global watchdog, said in a report last year that it believed a Syrian air force helicopter departed from the nearby Dumayr air base shortly after 19:00 that day and dropped two yellow cylinders which hit two apartment buildings, releasing highly concentrated chlorine gas.

Tawfiq said his family was just outside his ground floor home when the bombs hit.

"I heard an explosion and people shouted on the streets 'chemicals, chemicals'. I came running out. There was a foul smell. I saw yellow foam coming out of people's mouths. My children were not able to breathe, they were choking. I saw people lying in the street," he says.

The OPCW says at least 43 people were killed. Tawfiq says there were more than 100 dead.

• The BBC's Yogita Limaye brings you the full report from Ghouta

Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

Image source, Sanaa Azzam

I've been speaking to Sanaa Azzam, whose sister Ghinwa went missing in 2017 while walking to her job at a rug factory in the port city of Latakia.

Speaking through tears, Sanaa describes her sister as "a beautiful and very loving single mother", who loved cooking and was not political.

Aside from a single call to her daughter six weeks after her disappearance, saying "just pray for me", she hasn't been hasn't been heard from since.

Ghinwa's Facebook profile vanished, which makes Sanaa suspect her sister was taken by the Syrian government.

A relative made contact with a prison guard two years ago, who said Ghinwa was in a high-security prison and had an injured leg, "so we think they were torturing her", her sister says.

She adds that during the months after she disappeared, the family received several phone calls from the men who were holding her, asking for a ransom money. The men knew that Sanaa owned land in Aleppo.

"I told them yes, I will provide the money. They asked for $50,000," Sanaa tells me.

"I said I would sell my house to get the money. But I said I wanted to meet them and see my sister first before I give the money. Since then they cut off contact. I want closure, I want to know if she is dead or hurt."

"We still hope to find her alive", Sanaa says, but after seeing videos showing the condition of prisoners being released, "I actually pray she is dead, it is heartbreaking".

• Continue reading about the families of Syrian detainees who have been searching for their missing loved ones

Image source, Sanaa Azzam

Image source, Reuters

As we have been hearing from our correspondents in Damascus this morning, Syrians are waiting with bated breath to see what comes next.

Syrian-British human rights activist and journalist Ghias Aljundi tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme he is hopeful of a period of a new future.

"Do I trust the new rulers? No I do not," Aljundi says. "But I trust that no one will be worse than Assad.

"This is the most important phrase - no one will be worse than Assad."

Speaking from Jordan, Aljundi says the rebels trying to rule Syria will "fail very quickly" if they do not take in to consideration "the natural structure of Syria".

"Syria is not one colour," he adds. "It is many, many colours and Assad ignored that - and he tried to make it one colour."