Syria – stay: Thousands have fun fall of Assad amid fears chemical weapons might fall into incorrect palms

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met the Turkish foreign minister and discussed continued US-Turkish efforts to keep Islamic State down in Syria.

Mr Blinken revealed he met Turkey’s Hakan Fidan in Ankara, he said on Friday.

“Our countries worked very hard and gave a lot over many years to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS, to ensure that that threat doesn’t rear its head again, and it’s imperative that we keep at those efforts,” Mr Blinken told a news conference.

There is a broad agreement on what Turkey and the US want to see in Syria after Assad was ousted, Mr Blinken said.

Angry with life under Bashar al-Assad, 16-year-old Muawiyah Syasneh and his friends spray-painted four words onto a wall in their school playground.

Four words of defiance that saw the teenagers jailed and tortured for weeks, triggering Syria’s first protests in early 2011.

Four words that simply read: “It’s your turn, Doctor.”

Bel Trew writes:

The family of a US journalist who was captured in Syria more than a decade ago has said they are “incredibly hopeful” he will be returned.

Austin Tice was just 31 years old when he was captured close to Damascus in August 2012, while covering the Syrian civil war. It is believed he was taken by the Syrian government.

The complexity of the situation in Syria had made it difficult to know who had captured him or where he was being held, but after rebels ousted the Assad regime last week, the family had renewed hopes the journalist could be recovered.

Tom Watling reports.

Concerns have been raised about Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile falling into the wrong hands.

Evidence was found by the global chemical weapons watchdog that the Assad regime had repeatedly used such weapons during the civil war.

Former chemical weapons inspector in Syria with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Jerry Smith, said there is a concern about the possibility of chemical weapons themselves or the ability to manufacture them falling into hostile hands.

With no unitary government in Syria, removing chemical weapons is difficult, Mr Smith told Sky’s The World with Yalda Hakim.

“The concern would be that the [chemical] agent could still be loose, and that terrorist organisations get hold of it and potentially smuggle it out,” he added.

“If they got into the wrong hands, greater risks could follow downstream.”

Mass rallies are set to take place across Syria on Friday to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal dictatorship and an end to the 53-year Assad dynasty.

Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani has urged the public not to fire celebratory shots, after celebrations in Raqqa turned deadly on Thursday when a man reportedly lost control of his machine gun, CNN reported.

In a video address, Mr Golani said: “I invite them to take to the streets to express their joy without firing bullets and scaring people. After that, let’s build the country.”

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.