What we know
- Israel faced condemnation after it launched a wave of airstrikes and a ground advance into Syrian territory, which it said were temporary and defensive, in the wake of President Bashar al-Assad being overthrown.
- Syria's main rebel leader has vowed to hold Assad regime officials involved in torture accountable, saying they would be named and that rewards would be offered for those "involved in war crimes."
- Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, head of the globally designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), made the statement as a close ally was named the country's caretaker prime minister for a transition government until March.
- The Biden administration says it is considering removing HTS from its list of terrorist organizations.
- Jolani's extremist past raises questions about his future role in Syria after his fighters led the rapid offensive that toppled Assad and sent him fleeing to Moscow.
- Families and rescue teams rushed to a notorious Damascus prison where civil defense workers said they found no evidence of detainees held underground. Many Syrians who disappeared under Assad emerged to reunite with their loved ones, while others still remain missing.
Syrians search morgues for loved ones who disappeared during Assad regime
Families were desperate to learn what happened to their loved ones who disappeared during the Assad regime and turned to morgues for information.
Hundreds of thousands of people disappeared into Syria’s prison system under the former regime. Many of them were killed, and their families were left with no idea where they were.
Biden administration explores removing main Syrian rebel group from terrorist list
The Biden administration is exploring removing the foreign terrorist designation for HTS, the most powerful of the rebel groups that unseated Assad, two current administration officials and a former senior U.S. official told NBC News today.
The aim of the discussions is to “create a pathway for the world to interact with the new government,” the former official said. While two officials said the administration is looking to lift the designation “soon,” another said the discussions were still in the early stages.
Removing the terrorist designation for HTS, which has historic links to Al Qaeda, would include taking the $10 million bounty off Jolani, the officials said.
National security adviser John Kirby said today that there were “no discussions right now about changing the policy with respect to HTS, but we are watching what they do.”
The administration wants to see how HTS rule plays out over the next few weeks. It is actively exploring options, though, and looking at what legal work needs to be done to delist it.
In recent years, Jolani has tried to distance himself from his Al Qaeda connections and emphasize HTS’ more inclusive stance on women and minorities.
In a recent CNN interview, he said that if his forces were successful, “Syria would transition into a state of governance, institutions.”
A top U.S. commander visits troops in Syria and Iraq
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East visited American military personnel and partners, including members of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and the Syrian Democratic Forces, at several bases in Syria.
Gen. Michael "Erik" Kurilla also visited Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, Iraqi generals and U.S. Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Leahy in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said in a statement.
"The leaders discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation and regional security, the rapidly changing situation in Syria, as well as the defeat-ISIS operations in Iraq," the statement said. "The leaders also discussed the continued partnership between Coalition and Iraqi forces."
Israel's U.N. envoy says incursion into Syria is temporary
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said Israel does not intend to stay in Syria permanently but "will not allow the Iranians" to return to their borders.
"We will have to be patient about it. We have no intention to stay in those positions forever, but we have to assure that we don’t see radical Iranian groups on our borders again," Danon told NBC News.
Israel was criticized after it launched a wave of airstrikes and a ground advance into Syrian territory after Assad was overthrown.
Danon also called Jolani “a bad guy,” adding that Jolani “said that he’s changed all of a sudden."
"I’m not sure that is the case, but we would see what are the actions that he’s taking," Danon said, adding that he's not sure Syria will have a central government or whether it will be "a peaceful nation."
Danon said Israel will continue to support Syria's humanitarian needs.
Syrians search 'the human slaughterhouse' for signs of relatives
On the edge of the Syrian capital, Damascus, surrounded by barren desert on a rocky hilltop, sits the Saydnaya Prison, known as “the human slaughterhouse” under Assad.
The huge brutalist building was a no-go zone over the last decade of civil war when it was full of political prisoners, many of whom were never heard from again.
Today, several thousand people were desperately looking for their loved ones. Some were convinced that secret chambers, hidden facilities and cells were buried under the prison. So they came with crowbars and pickaxes to dig.
Eventually, bulldozers arrived to help, but there were no signs of life.
Documents bearing the names of prisoners, former inmates and people transferred from the facility were strewn on the ground. A man walked out carrying nylon nooses, some with blood on them.
Another man demonstrated a medieval device called a “press” that would slowly crush people to death.
Some people were looking for relatives, most of whom have been missing since the start of the revolution in 2011.
Drone video shows life in Damascus days after Assad was overthrown
Drone video captured landmarks in the Syrian capital, where banks reopened for the first time since the overthrow of Assad, a major step toward restoring normal life.
Turkish army and rebels launch massive attack on Kobani, Kurds say
Turkish-backed mercenaries are attacking regions near the northern Syrian city of Kobani, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said.
“There are currently fierce clashes between our forces and the Turkish-backed factions,” SDF said in a WhatsApp group. “They are supported by the Turkish warplanes and UCAVs that conducted dozens of airstrikes on the region of Kobani.”
The statement also said there were “large-scale arresting campaigns and lootings against the Kurds and their properties in the city.”
Turkish intelligence destroyed 12 trucks carrying weapons, including missiles and ammunition, which the Kurdish People’s Protection Units seized from the Assad regime in Qamishli, Syria, according to Turkey's state-owned Anatolian News Agency.
Turkey views the Kurdish People's Protection Units, which leads the Syrian Democratic Forces, as a threat to its territorial integrity and an extension of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group.
Syria is 'going towards stability,' rebel leader says
Jolani has issued comments apparently aimed at reassuring Syrians and the rest of the world about the country's stability.
"The country will be rebuilt," he told Sky News reporter Zein Jaafar in Damascus. "The fear was from the presence of the regime. The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It’s going towards stability. People are exhausted from war. So the country isn’t ready for another one, and it’s not going to get into another one."
Jolani said the people of Syria are afraid of Iranian militias, including Hezbollah, adding that "their removal is the solution for Syria."
The international community heavily sanctioned the Assad regime, a close ally of Iran and Russia. However, some of the groups that toppled Assad, including HTS, which has historic ties to Al Qaeda and is a designated terrorist group, are also raising eyebrows around the world.
In addition, the chaos and disorder caused by 13 years of civil war and the end of the Assads' rule has increased fears that the country's weapons stocks, including chemical weapons, will fall into the wrong hands.
Assad has taken sanctuary in Russia, Moscow confirms
Russia is providing sanctuary to Assad, having transported him there “in the most secure way possible” after the swift collapse of his regime, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said in an exclusive interview today.
“He is secured, and it shows that Russia acts as required in such an extraordinary situation,” Sergei Ryabkov said, becoming the first Russian official to confirm Assad’s presence in the country.
Russia has been dealt a huge blow by the collapse of a regime it gave its full support to, helping Assad cling to power after Syria descended into civil war and maintain his family’s brutal dynasty, which began in 1971.
Arab ministers to meet about Syria
Lebanon's Foreign Affairs Ministry said a meeting of Arab ministers is likely later this week to discuss the situation in Syria.
Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib spoke with Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Badr Abdelatty yesterday about "the necessity of Arab action to keep pace with Syria at this critical stage," according to a statement on X.