Region

ROME/ Beirut — Syria's new transitional prime minister has called for Syrians who have sought refuge abroad to return to their homeland following the ouster of longtime president Bashar Al Assad.

Mohammad Al Bashir, appointed by rebel groups as the transitional head of government to run the country until March, told Italy's Corriere della Sera daily that one of his first goals was to "bring back the millions of Syrian refugees who are abroad".

"Their human capital, their experience will allow the country to flourish," Bashir said in an interview published Wednesday.

"Mine is an appeal to all Syrians abroad: Syria is now a free country that has earned its pride and dignity. Come back. We must rebuild, be reborn, and we need everyone's help."

Assad fled Syria as an Islamist-led opposition alliance swept into the capital Damascus over the weekend, bringing to an end five decades of brutal rule by his clan.

Syria's nearly 14-year civil war killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes, millions of them finding refuge abroad.

With Assad gone, the country now faces enormous uncertainty.

Concerns about sectarian violence have surfaced, though the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), which led the rebel offensive, has sought to reassure religious minorities they will be safe in the new Syria.

The country's diverse communities, including Christians, Kurds and Alawites, are now waiting to see what sort of government Bashir will lead.

Syria's Christian community generally supported the Assad government since the start of the civil war in 2011, with the president, himself from the minority Alawite sect, positioning himself as a protector of minorities.

The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, called Wednesday for "mutual respect" between religions in Syria.

"I pray... that the Syrian people may live in peace and security in their beloved land and the different religions may walk together in friendship and mutual respect for the good of that nation afflicted by so many years of war," he said at his general audience at the Vatican.

Bashir told the Corriere that the "wrong behaviour of some Islamist groups has led many people, especially in the West, to associate Muslims with terrorism and Islam with extremism".

"The meaning of Islam, which is 'religion of justice', was distorted. Precisely because we are Islamic, we will guarantee the rights of all people and all sects in Syria," he said in the interview, published in Italian.

He also said "we have no problem with anyone, state, party or sect, who kept their distance from the bloodthirsty Assad regime".

Fighting between Turkish-backed and Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria has left 218 people dead in just three days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported on Tuesday.

The British-based monitor said that at least "218 members of pro-Kurdish forces and pro-Ankara factions were killed during three days of fighting in and around Manbij" where Turkish-backed factions launched an offensive. 

ONCUPINAR, Turkey — After eight years in exile, Ibrahim Abdullah is finally going home, his belongings stuffed into the same simple sports bag he carried when he fled Syria as a young teen. 

Just 13 at the time, Abdullah sneaked through the barbed wire along Syria's northern frontier to seek safety in neighbouring Turkey.

With the downfall of Bashar Al Assad, Abdullah is among thousands of Syrians going back. Bag in hand, he aims to find his childhood home in Aleppo, just days after an Islamist-led rebel offensive took the city and forced Assad to flee. 

"There's nothing valuable in it, just a few clothes," he told AFP pointing to his bag while waiting at the Oncupinar border crossing near the Turkish city of Gaziantep. 

Dressed in a blue-and-white checked shirt over a black hoodie, he arrived on a night bus from Istanbul which is home to around 500,000 of the three million Syrian refugees in Turkey. 

"It took 18 hours, then 10 minutes by taxi to get here," he explained, standing between two refugee families also heading back to Syria. 

Once across the border, the young man with floppy black hair and shaved temples will need at least another hour to reach Aleppo to the south. 

"My family has a home there. It's destroyed but I'm going to try and rebuild it," he said calmly, a mobile phone in his hand. 

His mother and four younger siblings have stayed in Istanbul where they live in Esenyurt, a district with a large Syrian community. 

"They will follow me in two or three months, but I'm not coming back," he said in accentless Turkish.

Fleeing the bombardments 

Between watching TikTok videos, he made calls to ensure a car will be waiting for him on the Syrian side of the border.

In the distance, a plume of black smoke curled into the air. 

Nobody knew the cause of the smoke but Abdullah did not seem bothered, confident that the guns have fallen silent. 

He did not recall much about crossing the border eight years ago. It was the height of the Syrian migration crisis when millions fled the intensive bombardment of Aleppo by government forces and their Russian allies. 

"But I know we left on foot and I was carrying this bag," he said. 

Since then he has been making shoes in an Istanbul factory and has not been to school.

His Istanbul memories would be of working-class neighbourhoods of the city, without once mentioning tourist highlights such as the Hagia Sophia, the Bosphorus or the Galata Tower.

In front of him, a metal gate leading to the final checkpoint before entering Syria briefly opened before quickly shutting again. Almost there but not quite.

Sitting on his bag, he fiddled with his Turkish residency card which has a white sticker with the number 157 on it. He was given the number on arrival at the border and it will be fed into the interior ministry's database. 

Will he keep hold of the card as a memory of his time in Turkey? 

"No, I'll have to give it back," he said. 

"After that, it's over."

CAIRO — Eight people were killed and three more injured when a six-story residential building collapsed in central Cairo on Tuesday, Egypt's health ministry said.

Nine ambulances were dispatched to the scene as rescuers continue to "lift rubble and search for any wounded or bodies", health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said in a statement.

A restoration order had been issued in 1993 for the building, which was constructed in the 1960s in Cairo's lower-middle income Al-Waili neighbourhood, according to district head Ahmed Awad, state newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

But "the building's residents had appealed the order and it was not executed," the official said.

Neighbouring buildings were evacuated Tuesday as a precautionary measure, according to a statement from Cairo governorate.

A large number of the buildings in central Cairo have gone unrestored since they were built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Greater Cairo — a sprawling metropolis home to over 26 million people -- has seen a number of deadly building collapses in recent years, both due the dilapidated state of some and, at times, failure to comply with building regulations.

-UN says Israel bombardment of Syria 'must stop'

-Syria defence research centre, navy ships destroyed after strikes

DAMASCUS — The rebels who ousted president Bashar al-Assad and are now in power in Syria appointed a transitional head of government Tuesday to run the country until March 1, a statement said.

"The general command has tasked us with running the transitional government until March 1," said a statement attributed to Mohammad al-Bashir on state television's Telegram account, referring to him as "the new Syrian prime minister".

Assad fled Syria as an Islamist-led rebel alliance swept into the capital Damascus on Sunday, ending five decades of rule by his clan.

Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) leader, who headed the offensive that forced Assad out, had announced talks on a transfer of power and vowed to pursue former senior officials responsible for torture and war crimes.

HTS is rooted in Syria's Al-Qaeda branch and is proscribed by many Western governments as a terrorist organisation, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric.

The UN envoy for Syria said the groups that forced Assad to flee must transform their "good messages" into actions on the ground.

"They have been sending messages of unity, of inclusiveness," Geir Pedersen said, adding that in Aleppo and Hama, "we have also seen... reassuring things on the ground".

But "what we need not to see is of course that the good statements and what we are seeing on the ground at the beginning, that this is not followed up in practice in the days and the weeks ahead of us."

The civil war that led up to it killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes, millions of them finding refuge abroad.

The country now faces profound uncertainty after the collapse of a government that had run every aspect of daily life.

 Thousands missing 

The fall of Assad has sparked a frantic search by families of the tens of thousands of people held in his security services' jails and detention centres.

As they advanced towards Damascus, the rebels released thousands of detainees, but many more remain missing. 

A large crowd gathered Monday outside Saydnaya jail, synonymous with the worst atrocities of Assad's rule, to search for relatives, many of whom had spent years in captivity there, AFP correspondents reported.

"I'm looking for my brother, who has been missing since 2013. We've looked everywhere for him, we think he's here, in Saydnaya," said 52-year-old Umm Walid.

"Since Bashar is gone, I'm optimistic. The fear is over."

Crowds of freed prisoners wandered the streets of Damascus, many maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger.

Neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan welcomed home detainees who had been held in Syria for decades.

The United Nations said that whoever ended up in power in Syria must hold Assad and his lieutenants to account. 

How the ousted leader might face justice remains unclear, but UN investigators who for years have been gathering evidence of horrific crimes called Assad's ouster a "game-changer" because they will now be able to access "the crime scene".

While Syrians were celebrating Assad's ouster, the country now faces enormous uncertainty, and it is unclear whether the dreams of democracy so many sacrificed their lives for will be realised.

Concerns about sectarian violence have also surfaced, though HTS has sought to reassure religious minorities they will be safe in the new Syria.

Strikes 

Further complicating prospects, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had recorded more than 300 Israeli strikes on the country since Assad's fall.

Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, called on Israel to stop.

"We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop. This is extremely important," he said.

AFP journalists in Damascus heard loud explosions on Tuesday but could not independently verify the source or scope of the attacks.

On Monday, Israel said it had struck "remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists".

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources around Syria, said Israeli strikes had "destroyed the most important military sites in Syria".

The group said the strikes targeted weapons depots, naval vessels and a research centre that Western governments suspected of having links to chemical weapons production.

In the port city of Latakia, smoke was still rising Tuesday from the wreckage of naval vessels half under water in the harbour, an AFP correspondent reported.

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz confirmed that the military had been operating in Syria in recent days to "destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the State of Israel". 

"The navy operated last night to destroy the Syrian fleet with great success," he said.

 'Sterile defence zone' 

Israel, which borders Syria, also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

The defence minister said the military had orders to "establish a sterile defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats in southern Syria, without a permanent Israeli presence."

Israel backer the United States said the incursion must be "temporary", after the United Nations said Israel was violating the 1974 armistice.

Assad spent years suppressing rebellion using everything in his means, including air strikes and even chemical weapons, but he was ultimately deposed in a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks.

DAMASCUS/ BEIRUT — Syria's parliament said Monday it supports the will of the people to build a new country, a day after President Bashar Al Assad left Damascus as rebels took over.

"December 8th was a historic day in the lives of all Syrians. We support the will of the people to build a new Syria towards a better future governed by law and justice," parliament, formerly pro-Assad, said in a statement carried by SANA -- the state news agency whose logo on Telegram now bears the three stars of the rebel flag.

Meanwhile, a Syria war monitor said Monday that overnight Israeli strikes targeted military positions and depots in several parts of the country, after rebels ousted president Bashar Al Assad.

"Since the initial hours after the announcement of the fall of the former regime, Israel began launching intensive air strikes, deliberately destroying weapons and ammunitions depots," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The targets of the overnight strikes included "air defence weapons depots and ammunition depots" belonging to the Syrian military in the coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces, said the Observatory.

The Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said Israel also launched strikes in the country's south targeting Tal Al Hara near the Israeli-annexed Syrian Golan Heights, and military positions in Izraa, in Daraa province.

Further Israeli strikes destroyed warehouses holding "anti-tank weapons" in the Qalamoun area in the Damascus countryside, the Observatory added. 

Since Syria's civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups. 

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.

The overnight raids came after the Observatory said Israeli strikes on Sunday hit a security compound of military, intelligence and customs buildings in the city of Damascus.

It said Israeli strikes also hit elsewhere including army positions and weapons depots near the Mazzeh military airport on the city's outskirts.

The Observatory also said Israel on Sunday "bombed former military sites" in southern Syria's Quneitra province.

It also said "ground forces penetrated... and took control of former regime force observation points" in the Mount Hermon area, further north closer to the Lebanese border.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he had ordered the Israeli military to "seize" a demilitarised buffer zone on the border with Syria after Assad's overthrow, while Israel's military imposed a curfew for residents of five Syrian towns in the area.

The Israeli leader said a 50-year-old "disengagement agreement" between the two countries had collapsed and "Syrian forces have abandoned their positions".

As a result, he said, "I directed the military yesterday to seize the buffer zone and the commanding positions nearby. We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border."

Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it in a move largely unrecognised by the international community.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday the takeover of the buffer zone was a "limited and temporary step".