Syria updates: Opposition leader says ‘notorious prisons’ will close

You can read more about Syrians’ happiness and concern for the future here.

As China quietly aligned with al-Assad through UNSC vetoes, read our explainer on how his fall affects Beijing here.

Watch our video on the human cost of al-Assad’s regime here.

We’re closing this live page soon, but before we do, here’s a recap of the day’s most significant developments:

• Caretaker PM al-Bashir said that “the rights of all people and all sects in Syria” will be guaranteed.
• Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa says Syrians are exhausted from war and need peace, urging foreign governments not to worry about the political situation.
• Latakia city residents have welcomed the opposition forces amid celebrations following the fall of al-Assad’s regime.
• Syria’s Baath party announced it was suspending work indefinitely, days after al-Assad was removed from power.
• The tomb of Hafez al-Assad was torched in his hometown of Qardaha.
• Syria’s opposition leader says that officials involved in torturing detainees will not be pardoned.
• Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the collapse of al-Assad’s “bloody regime” has paved the way for peace and security in Syria.
• Russian Foreign Ministry says Israeli action in Syria violates a treaty between Israel and Syria that ended the 1974 war.
• France’s Foreign Ministry says Israel must withdraw forces from the buffer zone separating the occupied Golan Heights from Syrian territory.

A monitor of Syria’s war says that Israeli air strikes targeted sites belonging to ousted President Bashar al-Assad’s military in the coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces.

Israeli warplanes launched air strikes targeting “military sites” including the Latakia port as well as warehouses in neighbouring Tartus province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The United Kingdom-based monitor added that “Israeli warplanes continue to destroy what remains of Syria’s military arsenal for the fourth consecutive day since the fall of the former regime”.

Satellite images obtained by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit show Russian military movements at the Hmeimim airbase and port of Tartous, in addition to details of recent Israeli attacks at the port of Latakia.

Images captured by Maxar Space Systems reveal that most Russian warships departed from the Tartous naval base. Two Russian frigates were still positioned 7-12km (4.5-7.5 miles) west and northwest of the port.

Warplanes and helicopters remained in their usual positions at the Hmeimim airbase near Latakia. No major redeployment or reinforcements were noticeable.

Moscow has said it is in contact with the new Syrian leadership over the fate of its military bases in the country.

Satellite images taken on December 10 also confirmed the extent of the destruction of several missile boats following Israeli air attacks on the port of Latakia. Israel has been aiming to weaken Syrian naval capabilities and prevent any potential threats from the country following the ousting of al-Assad.

The UN has sent peacekeeping reinforcements to Syria following the Israeli army’s decision to move across the ceasefire line, Newsweek reports, citing an anonymous UN diplomat in New York.

The diplomat was quoted as saying that the UN has reinforced a number of its positions in the occupied Golan Heights in the past 24 hours.

Currently, the diplomat said, the Israeli army had restricted the movement of peacekeeping forces in the Golan area.

Thousands of prisoners held in Syria’s notorious prisons remain unaccounted for, days after al-Assad fled for Russia.

Families face an agonising search for their loved ones during a bittersweet moment of freedom.

We dive into the emotional toll and the continuing fight for answers.

The leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, says a resurgent ISIL (ISIS) group is seeking to capitalise on the situation following the fall of al-Assad.

“[ISIL] is now stronger in the Syrian desert. Previously, they were in remote areas and hiding, but now they have greater freedom of movement since they face no issues with other groups and are not engaged in conflict with them,” the leader of the US-backed group, which helped defeat ISIL in 2019, told Sky News.

Abdi also warned that ISIL could seek to take advantage of the Kurdish-led forces’ conflict with the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army to attack SDF-run detention camps and release ISIL-affiliated prisoners.

“Generally, the effectiveness of our forces and those of the coalition against [ISIL] diminishes when we are focused on protecting civilians and our communities,” he said.

“Frankly, there is currently a significant threat to the security of these detention centres.”

Syria’s Prime Minister al-Bashir told Al Jazeera that the full appointees of the interim government will be announced within days.

He explained that most government employees have returned to work and reiterated that the door was open for those to join the interim government, except, he said, those who were involved in “the blood of the people” would not be welcomed back.

Starting next week, schools and universities will reopen, he added.

According to HTS, the group that overthrew the Assad regime, the current transitional government is set to rule until March 2025.

Four combat groups of the Israeli army are still deployed in southern Syria, according to the military.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that a brigade combat team was responding to threats along the border and had confiscated disused Syrian army tanks.

Other units discovered an outpost of the Syrian army on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon. They confiscated mines, explosives and missiles from an arms depot found at the outpost.

The Israeli military seized land in the so-called buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and neighbouring Syria after opposition forces ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad at the weekend.

Bakri al-Sahraa stands with his family by an upstairs entryway connected to an outdoor staircase that leads to the front garden. He watches people taking photos of the ornate chandelier – one of the few items the Syrian visitors had not reclaimed.

Standing here, he says, makes him realise how disconnected the Assads were from reality.

“The excessive luxury and these people living as rich people have no awareness of the poor,” the 58-year-old engineer says.

“In every city, he had a palace. In Homs there is one, in Aleppo there is one. What is this megalomania worth?”

In 2011, Syrians rose against the regime to demand their rights. The Assad regime responded with brutal repression. Rebel groups formed and took up arms against the state, resulting in a devastating civil war.

Read more here.

The US welcomed recent comments made by Syrian opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa about securing potential chemical weapons sites.

“We welcome this type of rhetoric but … actions have to meet words, as well,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.

Syria’s opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also referred to as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, spoke to Reuters news agency and said he would work to dissolve the al-Assad regime’s security force and close its most “notorious prisons”.

He added that his group was working with international organisations to secure possible sites where chemical weapons may be located.

Syria’s caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir sent his congratulations to Syrians for the “blessed revolution after years of hardship … at the hands of the criminal regime’s gangs”.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, al-Bashir said the current government will manage the transitional phase to take over the files from ministries and institutions of the al-Assad regime.

“We met with the former government and took over the files, ministries, and institutions from the existing ministries and general directorates. Our government in northwest Syria, the Salvation Government, is the one that will assume responsibility for the ministries currently existing in the government,” al-Bashir said.

Israel’s strikes on Syria following the fall of al-Assad violate international law, UN experts said, branding Israel’s attempts to “preemptively disarm” its foes as “lawless”.

Since al-Assad’s overthrow, Israel, which borders Syria, has sent troops into a buffer zone on the east of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in a move the UN has said violates a 1974 armistice. Israel’s army said it had conducted hundreds of strikes against Syrian military assets in the past two days, claiming to target everything from chemical weapons stores to air defences to keep them out of rebel hands.

“There is absolutely no basis under international law to preventively or preemptively disarm a country you don’t like,” said Ben Saul, UN special rapporteur on the promotion of human rights while countering terrorism. “If that were the case, it would be a recipe for global chaos,” he told reporters in Geneva, pointing out that “lots of countries have adversaries they would like to see without weapons”.

“You can’t just follow your enemy wherever they are in the world, and bomb them in some third country, which has been Israel’s approach.”

The Islamic Relief charity says health facilities in the Syrian capital are facing an “imminent collapse”.

“People are happy and hopeful but are still fearful of what happens next,” a member of the group present in Damascus said. “Everywhere you go, basic government services have collapsed as employees have fled or abandoned their posts. Health facilities especially need urgent support,” he added.

Meanwhile, hospitals in the northwestern city of Idlib were “full of wounded casualties and medics are overwhelmed”.

“I saw many hospitals badly damaged, especially in Hama and Damascus,” he added.

The International Rescue Committee unveiled its annual Emergency Watchlist on Wednesday, placing Syria fourth on its list of 20 countries most likely to face an escalating humanitarian crisis in 2025.

The move marks the first time the IRC has included Syria in its watchlist since 2021.

The global humanitarian aid organisation rated Sudan as the most severe country case, followed by the occupied Palestinian territory, where Israel has been waging an unrelenting war since October 2023, and then Myanmar.

The IRC said the humanitarian situation in Syria remains “highly uncertain” after rebel forces toppled the al-Assad regime.

“Whether the latest shifts in the conflict will allow Syrians to start rebuilding their lives in 2025 or deepen the crisis remains an open question,” it said in a media release.