Syria – dwell: Mass rallies set to have a good time fall of Assad amid fears chemical weapons ‘may be smuggled abroad’

Watch live as Damascus residents pray at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on the first Friday (13 December) after rebels ousted Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Syrians are celebrating the demise of Assad’s government after 13 years of civil war sparked by the president’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters following the Arab Spring.

A rebel coalition took control of the capital Damascus in a lightning offensive overnight on Sunday, 11 days after launching a major operation.

Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the end of Assad’s “barbaric regime.”

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has ordered troops to remain on Mount Hermon throughout the winter, according to a statement from his office on Friday.

“Due to what is happening in Syria – there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon,” the statement said.

The summit of Mount Hermon, situated wthin the buffer zone between Syria and Israel, is the highest permanently-manned UN position in the world.

Israeli forces seized the buffer zone on Sunday after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The funeral of Syrian activist Mazen al-Hamada, whose dead body was found inside the notorious Sednaya prison after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, took place on Thursday.

Mr Hamada, who escaped Syria after months of torture and abuse – physical, mental and sexual – in Syrian prisons, sought Asylum in the Netherlands.

But upon returning to Syria in 2020, Mr Hamada disappeared. One going theory posed that Mr Hamad was lured back to Syria with the promise of other detainees being released if he did so.

A symbol of the brutality of Assad’s dictatorship, Mr Hamada is believed to have been executed days before his body was discovered on Monday.

Russia has established direct contact with the political committee of Syria’s Islamist rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Interfax news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying.

Mr Mogdanov told reporters that Moscow aimed to maintain its military bases in Syria.

The minister said contacts with HTS, the most powerful force in the country after the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad, were “proceeding in constructive fashion”.

Mr Bogdanov said Russia hoped to maintain its two bases in Syria – a naval base in Tartous and the Khmeimim Air Base near the port city of Latakia – to keep up efforts against international terrorism.

“The bases are still there, where they were on Syrian territory. No other decisions have been made for the moment,” he said.

Thousands of Syrians are stranded on the Masnaa border crossing with Lebanon, looking to flee the country in fear for their futures after Islamist rebel groups ousted Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime.

Minority groups in Syria, including Christians and Alawites, are among those concerned that the new Syria’s future may not be tolerant of their communities, many of whom opposed the revolution in 2011 and the subsequent 13-year civil war.

The Masnaa border point – the only operational crossing between Syria and Lebanon – has been inundated with huge queues of Syrians attempting to travel in both directions, with many hoping to return to a freed homeland after years of displacement in Lebanon.

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Secretary of state Antony Blinken during his Middle East visit said efforts to locate Austin Tice, another US citizen who was abducted in Syria over a decade ago, were continuing.

“No update on Austin Tice, except to say that every single day, we are working to find him and to bring him home, making sure that the word is out to everyone that this is a priority for the United States,” Mr Blinken said.

Tice, a former US Marine and journalist, was 31 when he was kidnapped in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus.

Mr Blinken’s statement comes after an American citizen was found in Syria yesterday.

“In terms of (the) American citizen who was found just today, I can’t give you any details on exactly what’s going to happen, except to say that we’re working to bring him home, to bring him out of Syria,” Mr Blinken told reporters in Jordan.

Austria’s forced deportation of Syrian refugees back to their original homeland will only happen when it is safe, the foreign minister said.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer called for a reassessment of security in Syria to enable the return of refugees to their home country. Similar to many centre-right parties in Europe, the ruling People’s Party (OVP) is under pressure from the far-right.

Asked when the returns might happen, Alexander Schallenberg told Reuters that “when it is possible, we will do it immediately”. He added: “I don’t know (when). Can you see into the future?”

Austria was the first of more than a dozen European countries to announce a suspension on processing Syrians’ asylum applications.

Pope Francis presided over his weekly general audience on Wednesday alongside a Palestinian-crafted Nativity scene that was missing its eyebrow-raising signature element: a keffiyeh-draped manger holding the infant Jesus.

The wooden Nativity scene in the Vatican’s main audience hall had generated headlines when it was unveiled December 7 because of the presence of the keffiyeh, the black-and-white checkered headscarf that has become a potent symbol of the Palestinian cause.

Pope Francis had prayed before the creche briefly that day when he greeted the artists and donors responsible for all the Vatican’s Christmas decorations this year, which include various depictions of the manger in a Bethlehem stable where Jesus is said to have been born.

Nicole Winfield reports.

Explainer | What is the Golan Heights and why is the territory so important to Israel and Syria?

The Golan Heights, situated in the southwest corner of Syria and bordering Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, is a 1,000 square mile rocky plateau around 40 miles (60 kilometres) from Damascus, although it possesses a significance far beyond that and has been a political flashpoint for decades.

Troops have also been deployed beyond the demilitarised buffer zone and into Syrian territory, with Israeli defence minister Israel Katz saying Israeli forces had been ordered to create a “sterile defence zone” in southern Syria, adding that they would not retain a permanent presence. Israel had previously described reports from Syrian sources that it had breached the buffer zone as “false”.

But what is the Golan Heights and why does Israel consider it so important?