Syrian rebel leader says he will name Assad officials wanted for torture

What do we know about HTS?published at 13:02 Greenwich Mean Time 9 December

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Dr Salim Nayani in Leicester asks: HTS is designated a terror organisation in the UK. Do you think it will a repeat of Taliban?

HTS is an acronym that stands for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an organisation for the liberation of greater Syria.

It grew out of the original Arab Spring protests, a movement that erupted across the Middle East in 2011.

The unrest started in Syria when some boys graffitied “the people demand the downfall of the regime” on a school wall.

They were arrested and taken to a police station where they were beaten and abused, and one was mutilated. Infuriated crowds came out to peacefully protest, but this was met with bullets and imprisonment – and then the revolution began.

It began as a sort of democratic, peaceful uprising, but this got taken over by an extremist Islamist group – and that in turn has morphed into HTS.

This is one of the reasons why it still has the proscribed terrorist tag on it in many countries, which we can probably assume is going to be dropped before too long. But nevertheless, for a while, they were linked to al-Qaeda and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the late leader of IS.

All of that was a long time ago, and HTS split formally from al-Qaeda in 2016. In the last eight years, they have been ruling an area in north-west Syria.

People have lived fairly normal lives under their rule – not massively democratic – but okay lives I’m told. The test now is if HTS will be true to their word to govern for all Syrians.

That is a challenge in a country like Syria which is a patchwork of communities like Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Christians, Kurds and all other minorities.

You can also read more about HTS in this explainer.

Barbara Plett Usher
Reporting from Damascus

We’ve visited the notorious Saydnaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus.

The rebels who took over the capital yesterday say they freed more than 3,500 prisoners here.

But it’s believed by some that more could be trapped in hidden underground cells, and the Syrian civil defence group known as the White Helmets has joined the search.

Thousands of opposition supporters are said to have been tortured and killed in Saydnaya by the Assad regime. When we arrived there was a steady stream of people climbing the steep hill to the prison, crowding around its entrance eager for any news.

Inside, investigators were pounding the ground in a cellar apparently used for storing fuel, searching for an entrance to underground cells.

A member of the White Helmets told us there was no floor plan to indicate prisoners were trapped underground, only accounts from former inmates.

Dozens of men sifted through mounds of documents scattered on the floor, looking for clues to the hidden cells – or the whereabouts of their loved one.

For many, the fate of prisoners still missing is the most pressing issue now that Assad has fallen.

What is it like in Syria at the moment?published at 12:43 Greenwich Mean Time 9 December

Lina Sinjab
Middle East correspondent, in Damascus

As the day started, Damascus was slowly waking up, but by midday, the city was busy with lots of people out and about in the streets. There is a celebratory mood – with some rebels gathering around, many civilians are shooting into the air and singing revolutionary songs.

HTS fighters have been deployed to protect government buildings, such as the Central Bank in the main square. One fighter I spoke to said their main duty was to liberate the country from Assad, and now they protect its property because it belongs to all people.

Some things like restaurants and shops are opening up again today, ordinary people are regaining trust and slowly coming out to practice their daily life.

Follow along as our experts answer your questions by hitting Watch Live at the top of this page, or turning on the BBC News Channel.

What happens now? And your other key questionspublished at 12:33 Greenwich Mean Time 9 December

While our correspondents are answering your questions live above, here’s a quick look at some of the most pressing questions you have been asking so far:

Where is Syria on the map?

Syria is in the Middle East, on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Lebanon and Israel to the west, Iraq to the east, and Jordan to the south.

What has happened in Syria?

President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria has fallen, after a sudden offensive by Islamist and other allied rebel groups. The offensive lasted just 12 days and saw two key cities – Homs and the capital Damascus – taken over the weekend with little bloodshed.

Who are the Syrian rebels?

The rebels are spearheaded by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It’s led by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who in recent years has sought to transform his public image – from jihadist leader to rebel politician. He’s even ditched his nom-de-guerre, now going by real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Who is Assad and where is he now?

Deposed Syrian President Assad and his family had ruled Syria with an iron fist for decades. After his regime fell on Sunday, they were granted asylum in Russia, according to state media reports. Russia has long been a staunch ally of Assad’s, having intervened extensively in the war on his behalf for years.

What happens in Syria now?

The leader of HTS now faces a difficult balancing act, writes the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner. That’s between imposing discipline on his forces, but also being sufficiently democratic to follow through on his promise to govern more inclusively. He’s also aware that to gain international acceptance, he’ll need to keep the more hardline elements of his group in check.

What about Syrian refugees?

Many that fled Syria under the Assad regime are now thought to be returning. There are already queues at one border crossing with Turkey, which hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country – around 3.3 million people.

Emily Atkinson
Live page editor

Crowds have gathered in the centre of Syria’s capital Damascus to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime, bringing the family’s 50-year rule to a sudden end.

The swift offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel factions started just 12 days ago. The coalition quickly captured Aleppo, before sweeping southwards to Damascus. The military then collapsed and former president Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia.

People in Syria today describe their tentative hope, and their fears, as they look towards an uncertain future.

The details as to how we got here are complex, and the questions over what comes next numerous.

So, coming up at 12:30 GMT, the BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner, diplomatic correspondent Caroline Hawley, Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab and the World Service’s Lina Shaikhouni will be answering them.

We’ll update you on all the key lines – and you can follow along on the BBC News Channel or by hitting Watch live at the top of this page.

The White Helmets, a civil defence group in Syria, has said it will give a $3,000 (£2,350) reward for anyone who provides information that directly leads to the identification of secret prisons previously used by the Assad regime.

In a post on X, the group appeals specifically to former security officers and those working in the security branches and assured them their identities will remain confidential.

The White Helmets also ask families to not dig in the prisons themselves, as this could lead to the destruction of physical evidence needed to “support efforts of justice”.

At his media conference in Jerusalem earlier, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar characterised the military takeover of the buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria as a “limited and temporary step” to secure Israel’s security.

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to “take control” of the buffer zone. He said the disengagement agreement with Syria, which established the demilitarised area in 1974, had “collapsed” with the fall of the Assad regime.

Israel seized the Golan from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Six-Day War and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. The move was not recognised internationally, although the US did so unilaterally in 2019.

Pictures from the Golan Heights – a rocky plateau about 60km (40 miles) south-west of Damascus – showed Israeli troops crossing into the buffer zone yesterday.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has confirmed that Israel attacked suspected chemical weapons and missile stores in Syria saying that this was to stop them falling into the hands of extremist factions.

“The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens,” he told journalists.

Media reports suggest there have been dozens of Israeli air strikes in the past day or so, including on a site in Damascus said to have been used for rocket development by Iranian scientists.

Israel’s military has released pictures showing Israeli soldiers who crossed from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into the demilitarised buffer zone.

Israeli officials say they have also taken up military posts abandoned by Syrian forces without specifying whether they have moved into Syrian-held territory on the strategically important, mountainous plateau.

Saar reiterated that the Israeli military had entered Syrian-held territory as a temporary, defensive move to prevent cross-border attacks. He said it would “prevent an October 7 scenario from Syria”.

For many Syrian families, today marks a moment of celebration as loved ones are freed from prisons where they have been held for years by government forces.

But, for Dr Rim Turkmani, the director of the Syria Conflict Research Programme at London School of Economics, the change in power also brings an anxious wait for news about the safety of her relatives.

“Suddenly all the wounds are opening, everything is coming to the fore”, she tells BBC 5Live before describing how her cousin had been detained in the Saydnaya prison in 2016 when he was 18 years old.

And, amid videos of prisoners being broken out, Dr Turkmani says her cousin’s mother is still yet to hear from him.

“She’s sitting there waiting for news about her son…We know nothing about him,” she explains. “Every moment she texts me, ‘any news? Did you find anything?’ We’re watching every video, every picture, and there are hundreds of thousands of them.

“So imagine how many wounds are opening right now, how many mothers are waiting for their loved ones.”

Syria is located in the Middle East, on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

It borders Turkey to the north, Lebanon and Israel to the west and southwest, Iraq to the east and Jordan to the south.

Some 22 million people live in Syria. But more than a decade of civil conflict has forced millions to flee.

Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, with 3.3 million people fleeing to the country, and 1.5 million live in Lebanon, according to the UN.

A difficult balancing actpublished at 11:06 Greenwich Mean Time 9 December

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Ahmed Al-Sharaa, the leader of the victorious rebel group HTS, has ditched his former nom-de-guerre of Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani as he seeks to further distance himself and his group from their jihadist past.

He now faces a difficult balancing act between, on the one hand, imposing enough discipline on his forces to prevent more looting or any arbitrary score-settling, and on the other, being sufficient democratic that he follows through on his promise to govern Syria inclusively.

Much is being said, rightly, about HTS’s former links with al-Qaeda and even with the IS group, through its late leader, the notoriously cruel butcher and rapist, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

But al-Sharaa is so far playing a clever game. He knows that for Syria’s new government to succeed, and attract international acceptance and support, he needs to keep the more hardline elements of his group in check.

Over the weekend, even Sir John Sawers, the former chief of MI6, said it would be “ridiculous” if the British government refused to deal with Syria’s new rulers. The test, of course, will be not in their promises but in their actions.

Everyone remembers the cheerful undertakings given by the victorious Taliban when they took power in 2021, and how they then turned that country into a living prison for women and so became an international pariah.

Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

I’ve been speaking to a man who visited Saydnaya prison at midnight yesterday to try to find his friend’s father who has been held in the prison for 13 years.

Dr Sharvan Ibesh – chief executive of the NGO Bahar, which does humanitarian work in Syria – did not find him.

“It was very disappointing and we got no information,” Ibesh says.

When he arrived at the prison, it was was “chaos”, he says. “Hundreds of people were coming out of the prison and we were told we could not come in because so many people were getting in the way of the rescuers”.

“My friend is so upset because for 13 years she dreamed of finding her father. We were told that many prisoners have been moved to another location.”

Ibesh also visited the al-Salam mosque in Damascus yesterday, where hundreds of prisoners from Saydnaya were taken to be looked after and families were also visiting to see if they could find their relatives.

Ibesh says he met two men at the mosque who had been held for several years in the prison.

“They were disorientated,” says Ibesh. “They don’t even know the time zone.”

“People around them were asking ‘what’s your name’ and ‘how old are you’?, but they could not even answer those questions,” Ibesh says.

It was hard to tell how old they were from looking at them. “The men were totally lost, they were just starring ahead,” Ibesh says.

Investigations are continuing at the Saydnaya military prison, a notorious complex in the Syrian capital, after reports emerged that inmates are being detained in underground cells.

Syrian civil defence group, White Helmets, says so far it has “not found any of the secret doors being talked about” – but will continue searching with the help of people “who know the prison’s entrances and secret passages”.

Here are some of the latest images from the search:

On the latest episode of The Global Story podcast, Azadeh Moshiri speaks to BBC Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab, who became one of the first western journalists to report from Damascus after former President Assad fled.

She describes seeing some Syrians celebrating, while others looted Assad’s former home.

Also on today’s podcast, chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet explains what the future might hold for the country.

• You can listen to The Global Story on BBC Sounds

It’s early afternoon in Damascus, and some small crowds appear to have gathered in the centre of the capital to celebrate Assad’s ousting.

In the footage below, a group is seen chanting and raising their fists in the air.

The toppling of the Assad regime “brings a lot of hope”, says one Syrian who was arrested and tortured under the Assad regime.

Qutaiba Idlbi, a senior fellow at the international affairs think-tank the Atlantic Council, tells BBC Newsday that it is finally “closing a chapter on at least 13 years of civil war”.

He says he has “hope for the future”. “A lot of people are putting aside any ideas for revenge… and really just looking for what’s coming next”.

One of his main concerns, Idlbi adds, is whether the international community will be able to successfully help bring different groups together, and take this “once in a lifetime” opportunity for a political transition in Syria.

The flag of Syrian rebel groups has been installed at the embassy in Moscow by members of the Syrian diaspora.

The move is particularly symbolic as Russia has been a staunch ally of the Assad regime and supported the country’s president Bashar al-Assad during the country’s protracted 13-year civil war.

And, as we’ve just reported, the Kremlin has confirmed that President Putin personally decided to grant Assad and his family asylum in Russia.

As we’ve been reporting, deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family have been granted asylum in Russia, according to state media there.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov now says in his daily briefing that President Vladimir Putin personally made the decision to do so – but declines to confirm Assad’s whereabouts.

Peskov also does not say when Putin and Assad met last, and adds that they have no plans to do so in the near future.

Peskov stresses that Russia is ready to maintain contacts “with those who will be in power in Syria”.

Footage has been circulating of detainees being broken out of the notorious Saydnaya prison, where it is estimated that more than 30,000 prisoners were executed or died between 2011 and 2018.

There have been reports that within the prison, some people were trapped or hidden in secret underground areas, but one humanitarian group says it has found no evidence of this so far.

“To this moment, our teams who arrived at Saydnaya prison have not found any of the secret doors being talked about,” a statement from the White Helmets reads.

Describing its operations, it adds: “The teams are using sound probes and search equipment as well as canine teams with trained dogs.”

The White Helmets says that its teams are also being guided by people “who know the prison’s entrances and secret passages” and adds that searches will continue “until we identify all its sections accurately”.

Reviewing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) designation as a terror group “has got to be considered,” says UK cabinet minister Pat McFadden.

Some context: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the Islamist militant group that spearheaded the offensive against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus.

McFadden, whose government role includes responsibility for national security, says HTS has been proscribed “for quite a long time now” and the leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has “distanced himself in a way from the things that have been said in the past”.

Al-Jolani is “saying some of the right things” about respecting people’s rights, “so we’ll look at that in the days to come” he tells the BBC’s Today programme.

He adds that “it should be a relatively swift decision” given the speed of the situation on the ground.

Asked which factors will drive the decision to change HTS’s status, he says: “A lot will depend on whether statements about the protection of minorities and citizens are backed up.”