Syria latest: Syrian rebel fighters set fire to tomb of Bashar al-Assad's father

Summary

Syrian rebels have set fire to the tomb of ex-President Bashar al-Assad's father in his former hometown
Images show the fighters standing next to the burning gravesite of Hafez al-Assad in the western Syrian Latakia province
Meanwhile shops are reopening and people are returning to work in Damascus as day-to-day life gradually resumes
BBC reporters in the city speak to workers who say they're "hoping for better days", as they adapt to life after the fall of the Assad regime
Elsewhere Syrian rebel forces say they have taken control of the oil-rich eastern city of Deir al-Zour from Kurdish forces as they try to secure the country's resources
It comes as Israel confirmed it carried out attacks on Syria's naval fleet and conducted 350 air strikes as part of its efforts to neutralise military assets in the country

Live Reporting

Edited by Francesca Gillett, with Lina Sinjab and Sally Nabil reporting from Damascus

On the way to Damascus, it’s all quietpublished at 07:55 Greenwich Mean Time
Sally Nabil
Reporting from Damascus
Image source, BBC/Sally Nabil
On our way to the capital Damascus, the scene was very telling, It spoke of power vacuum and anticipation.
As soon as we crossed the Lebanese border crossing into Syria, we felt an eerie quietness.
Along the highway to the Syrian capital, we could only see torn-apart pictures of former president Bashar al- Assad and remnants of battles between the Syrian army and the rebel forces, now in control of the country.
Some military uniforms were lying on both sides of the road. Locals here told me many soldiers took off their uniforms right before the downfall of the former president.
Government check points where cars used to queue up for hours, because of strict security checks, are totally deserted now.
We look around, and there are only bullet cases on the ground and a couple of charred military tanks, and bullet ridden cars.
One of the locals tells me these check points used to be manned by the fourth military brigade, led by Maher Al Assad, the former President’s brother, and a commander, widely known among Syrians for his brutality.
"Maher was even worse than his brother," a man says.
Image source, BBC/Sally Nabil
Blinken to meet Turkish FM to discuss Syriapublished at 07:48 Greenwich Mean Time
Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
Antony Blinken
We're now getting reports that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be heading to Ankara, Turkey, to discuss the situation in Syria with his Turkish counterpart, the Reuters news agency reports.
Turkey has hosted large numbers of Syrian refugees since the civil war began in 2011.
Speaking on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Erdogan said: "Any attack on the freedom of the Syrian people, the stability of the new administration, and the integrity of its lands will find us standing against it."
- As a reminder, Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan's meeting comes after Bashar al-Assad's regime was toppled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels
Syria's new transitional PM calls for stability and calmpublished at 07:42 Greenwich Mean Time
David Gritten
BBC News
Image source, Getty Images
The prime minister of Syria's new transitional government has said it is time for people to "enjoy stability and calm" after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the north-west, was speaking to Al Jazeera after being tasked with governing until March 2025 by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies.
Bashir chaired a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday attended by members of his new government and those of Assad's former cabinet to discuss the transfer of portfolios and institutions.
It came as the UN envoy for Syria said the rebels must transform their "good messages" into practice on the ground.
How Assad was ousted in less than two weekspublished at 07:31 Greenwich Mean Time
Image source, Getty Images
As our correspondents continue bringing you reactions to the fall of the Assad regime from Syria, here's a brief recap of how we got here:
- President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria has fallen, after a sudden offensive by Islamist rebel groups
- It was led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), alongside allied rebel factions, and brought an end to the Assad family's 50-year rule
- The offensive started just 14 days ago, with two major cities falling to the rebels over the weekend
- Homs, Syria's third largest city, was taken on Saturday after just one day of fighting
- On Sunday, HTS-led rebels announced they had entered the capital Damascus, releasing inmates from the notorious Saydnaya military prison
- Former president Assad - who had long vowed to "crush" the rebels with the help of his allies - has fled to Russia, with state media there reporting he has been granted asylum
Explained: What just happened in Syria?
'We reopened without fear' - Damascus shop workerpublished at 07:17 Greenwich Mean Time
Sophie Williams
Reporting from Damascus
Image source, BBC/Sophie Williams
Here in Damascus, shops are opening and people here are trying to get back to a new sense of normality.
For one chocolate shop in Damascus, the fall of the Assad regime also means a change in customer.
"We reopened without fear because the people we serve are now not intimidating at all. Before, everyone who came to buy from us was either there to represent a general or a minister loyal to the Assad regime. Now thank God, that is no longer the case," chocolate shop worker Joud Insani tells me.
"We reopened without fear because the people present now are not intimidating at all. Our lives have undoubtedly become better."
Shops reopening and people returning to work as day-to-day life resumespublished at 07:08 Greenwich Mean Time
Lina Sinjab
Reporting from Damascus
Image source, BBC/Lina Sinjab
I am in one of the famous food and vegetable markets in the capital where people here are mainly focused on their day-to-day life and getting back to normal.
You can hear the noise of sellers around me, shops are open and we have seen public employees going back to work.
One of the salesmen told me "now we have oxygen in the air" while another man says there is an "ongoing celebration from now on".
The rebels have not made any comments about the Israeli air strikes - their focus is to get the country back on its feet and to open public institutions.
Most people are upset about the Israeli air strikes, but this has been happening during former President Bashar al-Assad's rule for the last few years.
We have also heard they have taken control of the city of Deir al-Zour in the east after the Kurdish forces pulled out. This is a city that is very important because it is rich in oil - so the rebels want to make sure there is oil coming and they control the resources.
Now, people are just focused on safety and calm and that is what the interim prime minister has said this is what the country needs now.
Image source, BBC/Lina Sinjab
'I hope Assad will pay the price', says mother of teen whose death inflamed the Syrian revolutionpublished at 06:57 Greenwich Mean Time
Lucy Williamson
Reporting from Deraa, Syria
Image caption,
Samira, the mother of the murdered 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib, says she hopes Assad pays the price
If the push to oust Bashar al-Assad was born anywhere, it was born in Deraa, a small city in Syria near the Jordanian border.
Here, on 21 May 2011, the tortured and mutilated body of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib was delivered to his family weeks after his arrest at an anti-government rally.
His death, and the torture of other local teenagers for writing anti-Assad graffiti, sparked widespread protests and a harsh crackdown by government forces.
If anyone in Deraa should be celebrating the fall of Assad's regime, it's the Khatib family.
But when we visited on Tuesday, no one in that house was celebrating.
They had just been sent screenshots of documents found in the notorious Saydnaya prison confirming that Hamza's older brother Omar - also arrested by the police in 2019 - had died in custody.
The boys' mother, Samira, shaking with grief, told me she had been waiting for Omar to emerge from prison.
"I was thinking maybe he'll come today or tomorrow," she said. "Today, I got the news."
- Read Lucy Williamson's full story with the mother whose son's death inflamed the 2011 Syrian revolution
‘Now we can breathe,' say Syrians in Damascuspublished at 06:47 Greenwich Mean Time
Sally Nabil
Reporting from Damascus
Image source, BBC/Sally Nabil
As signs of life came back to the Syrian capital Damascus, many locals still struggle to get over "the era of fear" of former President Bashar al-Assad.
In downtown Damascus, many shops, restaurants are now open, but petrol stations, which are all state owned, are still not working.
We can feel the euphoria, all around us in the heart of the city.
Some families were handing out sweets in celebration of a new chapter that has just started.
"Now we can talk out loud, without fear," a young man tells me with a big smile.
"It’s as if we can breathe much easier now," another lady says.
But the heavy legacy of Bashar al-Assad will continue to have its toll on many Syrians. Desperate families came from different provinces to Damascus to look for their loved ones, who disappeared over the last decade.
"My nephew was taken away by the authorities in a car in 2013, since then we haven’t heard of him," a middle-aged man tells me.
It’s his first time to visit the capital in over 10 years. He came all the way from Idlib, a rebel stronghold in northern Syria, to check prisons and hospitals but he couldn’t find a clue.
Image source, BBC/Sally Nabil
Israel says it has hit strategic weapons stockpiles in Syriapublished at 06:39 Greenwich Mean Time
Warren Bull
BBC News
Image source, Reuters
Israel's first air strikes took place late on Saturday, when they destroyed Syrian state air defences.
Since then the IDF says it's sent waves of fighter jets and drones to attack air bases and weapon sites, destroying Syria's naval fleet as well as helicopters and tanks.
The Netanyahu government is adamant that the various Islamist groups now in control of large swathes of Syria should not have the means to threaten Israel.
But Arab states have criticised the air strikes and condemned the movement of Israeli troops into a buffer zone with Syria. Turkey too has accused Israel of displaying an "occupying mentality".
Oil-rich eastern city seized as rebels secure Syria's resourcespublished at 06:34 Greenwich Mean Time
Overnight, Syrian rebel forces said they took control of the oil-rich eastern city of Deir al-Zour - as they try to secure the country's resources.
Hassan Abdul-Ghani, a senior commander of the main Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) , said his fighters had liberated the city and its military airport.
"Our forces have seized the entire city of Deir al-Zour," the rebels said in a statement.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) - a war monitor based in the UK - says that Kurdish forces previously controlling the city had withdrawn to other localities.
Kurdish forces had taken the city after former President Bashar al-Assar withdrew his troops earlier in the week.
Rebels seize control of Deir al-Zour as Syria transitions from Assad's rulepublished at 06:29 Greenwich Mean Time
Image source, Getty Images
It's just gone 9am in Syria and we'll be bringing you the latest updates from the Middle Eastern country as it transitions from the Assad regime, after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels took control of large swathes of the country - particularly the capital, Damascus.
Syrian rebel forces have taken control of the city of Deir al-Zour, consolidating their power after seizing the eastern town from the US-backed Kurdish forces that had control of the region.
It comes a day after HTS appointed a new interim prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, who previously governed a small pocket of rebel-held territory during Assad's rule.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Syrian rebel forces not to allow Iran to "re-establish" itself in the country. The Israeli military said it had carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria since the Assad government was overthrown, targeting in particular the country's weapon stockpiles.
Syria's naval fleet was also under Israeli bombardment on Tuesday as part of the IDF's efforts to neutralise military assets in the country.