The Syrian New Dawn

Assad fled Syria as the Islamist-led rebels swept into the capital, bringing a spectacular end to five decades of brutal rule by his clan. Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group had been administering swathes of Idlib province and parts of neighbouring areas until November 27, when along with allied factions it launched a lightning offensive, seizing government-held territory and capturing Damascus on Sunday. The rebel leader on Monday began discussions with the ousted government on transferring power, a day after his opposition alliance dramatically unseated president Bashar al-Assad following decades of brutal rule. Syria’s opposition forces are in talks to take formal control of the country after a sweeping offensive that captured swaths of territory, including Damascus, and ousted longtime President Bashar al-Assad. Opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, met outgoing Prime Minister Mohammed al-Jalali on Monday to discuss the transition. Al-Jalali, who served under al-Assad, has agreed to transfer power to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) Syrian Salvation Government (SSG). Thousands of people have been flocking from all over Syria to Saydnaya prison outside Damascus in the hope of finding loved ones arrested by Bashar Assad’s regime. For the past two days, all have been looking for signs of relatives who disappeared years or even decades ago into the secretive, sprawling prison known as “the Slaughterhouse”. Insurgents freed dozens of people from the Saydnaya military prison on Sunday when Damascus fell. Since then, almost no one has been found.

The British wife of ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Asma Assad, has been branded a “sanctioned individual” and is “not welcome here in the UK,” according to Foreign Secretary David Lammy. His comments come amid growing uncertainty about whether the British government will revoke her citizenship. Asma Assad, who was born in London in 1975 and raised and educated in the UK, is currently believed to be in Moscow alongside her husband, who fled there after the sudden collapse of the Assad regime