Image source, Reuters

We're going to be pausing our live coverage for the day, but before we do so, here's a recap of the third day since the end of Bashar al-Assad's rule in Syria.

• Mohammed al-Bashir, who previously governed a small pocket of rebel-held territory during Assad's rule, was named as Syria's new interim prime minister
• The Israeli military acknowledged its troops are operating in Syrian territory, beyond the demilitarised buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Syrian rebel forces not to allow Iran to "re-establish" itself in the country
• Meanwhile, Turkey has joined some Middle Eastern nations - including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt - in accusing Israel of "exploiting" the downfall of Assad

• The Israeli military says it carried out 480 air strikes in Syria over the past 48 hours, destroying "most of Syria's strategic weapon stockpiles"
• It has also confirmed it carried out attacks on Syria's naval fleet, as part of its efforts to neutralise military assets in the country

To go deeper on this topic, you can also continue reading about the latest developments in Syria with these stories:

• The BBC’s James Landale joins the latest Newscast episode to discuss what a new government in Syria means for the Middle East

• Syrian families' describe to the BBC the 'unbearable' wait to know the fate of their detained relatives
• The BBC's Lucy Williamson met with a mother whose son's death inflamed the 2011 Syrian revolution
• And our explainer breaks down which countries have played a role in Syria - and could continue to do so in the future

Image source, Reuters

The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet has joined the wider BBC team in Damascus.

In a conversation with Barbara Plett-Usher this afternoon, she reflected on the divide across Syrian society, which has been epitomised at the country's border with Lebanon.

She explains that many people could be seen filing into the country, but there was also a long stream of people rushing out who say they no longer feel safe.

Those fleeing across the border into Lebanon also tell Lyse they fear persecution under Syria's new leadership given their previous allegiance to the Assad regime:

BBC Verify has taken a close look at what footage online can tell us about Israel's ongoing operations in Syria.

Watch Merlyn Thomas talk you through what it indicated below:

Image source, Getty Images

Since Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels overthrew President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and took control of large swathes of the country, we've been seeing images of a three-starred flag replacing Syria's previous two-starred one.

This opposition flag has featured in the celebrations of Syrian people across the world, and has also been hoisted from several diplomatic outposts, such as the Syrian embassies in Moscow, Brussels, and Paris.

The Syrian football team has also recently updated its logo and changed the colour of the team's kit from red to green.

The flag used by the rebels is not entirely new, and is a modified version of the independence flag first used when Syria gained independence from France.

According to reports, the three red stars at the centre of the flag represent the three main districts of Syria: Aleppo, Damascus and Deir el-Zor.

The Assad regime's official flag - which was red, white, and black with two green stars in the centre - had been used since 1980.

Red represented the blood shed in the Syrian revolution, white stood for peace, and black symbolised the oppression of Arabs.

This was also the flag of the United Arab Republic - a political union of Egypt and Syria which collapsed in 1961.

BBC Arabic correspondent Sally Nabil has been speaking to people in Damascus today, as the streets of the Syrian capital begin to return to normal.

She speaks to those who have travelled to the city to search for their loved ones disappeared by the Assad regime, as well as residents of the city who feel a chance to be free for the first time.

Watch her report below:

Neha Gohil
Live reporter

A Syrian asylum seeker living in the West Midlands has told the BBC the decision by the UK government to pause decisions on Syrian asylum applications left him and his family “anxious” and his wife in tears.

H, who did not want to be named, fled the Assad regime in 2013 and applied for asylum in the UK in late 2023. He has been waiting more than a year for an outcome to his asylum application, making it difficult for him to secure work.

He is one of the more than 5,000 Syrians were seeking asylum in the UK in the year ending 2024, according to government figures., external

“I was really happy for the fall of the Assad regime. At the same time, the next day we received this news and to be honest, I was really depressed, frustrated," H says.

He says he wants the UK government to continue making asylum decisions until they can make a better assessment of the safety of Syria for asylum seekers.

“I want to ask them to use logic. After 13 years of a very complicated war, we cannot say in one day that we need to reassess. The reassessment can happen after six months, one year...

“Currently with their decision, they're affecting thousands of people who are already struggling. [Syrian asylum seekers] cannot go back yet because it’s not yet safe, they cannot settle here at the same time, they will be nowhere for an unknown period of time.”

The Israeli military says it has destroyed "most of the strategic weapons stockpiles in Syria" over the past 48 hours through the use of hundreds of strikes.

In a statement posted on Telegram, the Israel Defense Forces says that its navy targeted two Syrian navy facilities and sea-to-sea missiles with ranges of 80 to 190km (50 to 118 miles) - destroying 15 ships.

It added that it carried out 480 air strikes in total, targeting anti-aircraft batteries, airfields, weapons production sites, weapons depots, military structures, launchers, and firing positions across Syria.

Some news coming to us from Washington DC where the US State Department has just given an update to the media.

Spokesman Matthew Miller says Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been on the phone today with a number of his counterparts in the region, including the foreign ministries of Jordan, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

He also told the briefing that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), one of the main rebel factions that overthrew the previous Syrian government, was using the right words. But, Miller added the US would judge the group by its actions.

He was also asked about freelance journalist Austin Tice, who is thought to have been taken captive close to Damascus on 14 August 2012 while he was covering the Syrian civil war.

"We continue to make clear in our conversations including with entities on the ground in Syria that Austin Tice is a priority," Miller adds.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden said all indications point to Tice being alive.

Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

Image source, Maryam Kamalmaz

I've been talking to Maryam Kamalmaz about the search for her father who disappeared in Damascus in 2017.

Majd Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist from Texas, was on a trip to Syria to see family when he was arrested at a checkpoint.

Nothing has been seen or heard of him since that day.

Earlier this year, US intelligence officials said they had classified information that he died in prison.

But his daughter Maryam refuses to give up on the idea that her father may still be alive.

"The FBI told us he was dead - but they did not have a body or any concrete information," she tells me.

"We are seeing stories of people who were declared dead and given death certificates and then they actually turned out to be alive."

"It renews our hope to find him alive. But if we don't, then at least we want to find his remains and have some sort of closure."

Members of the family have been looking for Majd in hospitals and tried to find him at the notorious Saydnaya prison.

"I keep looking at the pictures and videos of people coming out of the Saydnaya prison," Maryam says, "and thinking maybe I will see him there".

"But I am trying not to get too hopeful as I don't want to get crushed again."

• Continue reading about the families of Syrian detainees who have been searching for their missing loved ones

Image source, Maryam Kamalmaz

Image source, Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned the Syrian rebel forces not to follow in the footsteps of toppled President Bashar al-Assad and allow Iran to "re-establish" itself in the country.

"If this regime allows Iran to re-establish itself in Syria, or permits the transfer of Iranian weapons or any other weapons to Hezbollah, or if it attacks us - we will respond forcefully, and we will exact a heavy price," Netanyahu says in a video posted on X.

"What happened to the previous regime will also happen to this one."

As a reminder, Iran was one of Bashar al-Assad's most important allies and Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, sent hundreds of fighters to join the Syrian civil war and had been key to holding regime territory.

Netanyahu's statement comes after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed for the first time that its troops were operating beyond the demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

With Syria, there are limits to the cards the US has to playpublished at 18:33 Greenwich Mean Time 10 December 2024

18:33 GMT 10 December 2024

Tom Bateman
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has in effect laid out a series of conditions which, if fulfilled, would see Syria enjoy Washington’s full recognition.

The administration says governance should be credible and transparent, fully respecting the rights of minorities, ensuring Syria doesn’t become a base for terrorism or threaten its neighbours, and that any chemical and biological weapons stocks should be destroyed.

It also says other countries should refrain from external interference.

"The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria. All nations should pledge to support an inclusive and transparent process and refrain from external interference," the statement reads.

The Americans are trying to shore up a process towards a future government of Syria they would see as amenable. They want to pull it away from the orbit of Iran and Russia, and to defuse what Washington would see as any major threat to its key ally in the region, Israel.

But there are limits to the cards the US has to play, while some other countries - especially Turkey - have seen their own influence grow over what happens next in Syria.

Blinken is calling around the region trying to build consensus around the conditions for a future government.

The US designates Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the march on Damascus, as a terrorist organisation, but it is almost certainly in indirect contact with the group, dangling the prize of future relations with Washington to try to compel it to move in the direction the US wants.

Yogita Limaye
Reporting from Ghouta, suburb of Damascus

Driving into Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, destroyed buildings are visible on both sides of the road.

A rebel stronghold, it was the target of extensive air strikes carried out by Bashar Al Assad’s regime and his allies. And on more than one occasion, the Syrian military used chemical weapons here.

Tawfiq Diab showed us where a chlorine bomb was dropped outside his home in April 2018, in which his four little children and his wife were killed. He says it’s the first time he’s been able to talk freely about what happened to his family.

“I couldn’t speak before this, otherwise the regime would have cut off my tongue," he says. "When the attack happened, people started choking and couldn’t breathe. My wife and children [were] killed by chemical bombs."

Tawfiq says the bodies of his family were taken by the regime’s forces, along with those of other victims, and buried in a mass grave by the side of a road not far from his home. He wasn’t allowed to go to the site, and today he says was the first time he set foot on it.

He now wants the grave to be dug up and to give a dignified funeral to his family. He also wants the international investigation into the attack re-opened.

Abdalrahman Hijazi, an eyewitness who went to Geneva to testify before the UN, told the BBC he was threatened by Bashar Assad’s forces that his family would be imprisoned if he didn’t stick to their version of events.

With access to parts of Syria that have so far been largely hidden from the world view, the full scale of the horrors inflicted by the country’s government on its people is being revealed bit by bit.

For the last few hours, we've been tracking the latest reaction to the toppling of the Assad regime from key countries - let's bring you a summary of those responses:

• President Joe Biden and his G7 partners will discuss the turmoil in Syria when they hold a scheduled virtual meeting this Friday, a US official has said
• Antony Blinken has also said the US will "recognise and fully support a future Syria government that results" from an "inclusive and transparent" process
• The Egyptian foreign ministry has called on for Syria to allow a full political process to take place in the country
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Syria to achieve peace and stability, but he has also praised allies for taking over two Syrian towns - Tal Rifaat and Manbij
• Erdogan also announced the opening of a new border crossing to encourage Syrian refugees in Turkey to return home

Footage shows damage to two key sites after overnight strikespublished at 17:21 Greenwich Mean Time 10 December 2024

17:21 GMT 10 December 2024

By Shayan Sardarizadeh

BBC Verify has been examining videos of the latest reported Israeli strikes in Syria.

Two videos we have verified show the port of Latakia, western Syria, being targeted. The videos show a huge blast in the area, with a number of ships nearby.

We matched the details in the clips – such as silos and vessels – to satellite imagery of the port.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that the Israeli navy had carried out the strikes to “destroy the Syrian fleet”.

A video of the aftermath of the strike, filmed this morning, shows extensive damage to several navy ships.

There were also reports of strikes on a Scientific Studies and Research Centre, located in the Barzeh area, north of Damascus. The centre has previously been linked to Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons programme by the UN watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

We verified several images of the aftermath of the strike by comparing known images of the facility to the pictures circulating on social media. They show at least one of the buildings of the research centre completely destroyed, with extensive damage also visible to other parts of the site.

Image source, Telegram

Neha Gohil
Live reporter

Image source, Douna Haj Ahmed

I’ve just spoken with Douna Haj Ahmed, a Syrian refugee living in London who fled the Assad regime in 2017, about the decision by some European nations to pause decisions on Syrian asylum applications.

“It's not the right decision, they can’t overwhelm people with another thing. They can't give people another thing to worry about. It's not that simple to go back [to Syria],” says Ahmed, a human rights activist.

Ahmed, who would not personally be affected by the pause as she has refugee status in the UK, says many Syrians who fled the country would want to return but much of their livelihood has been destroyed in the country’s decade-long civil war.

“We built lives here. I have a home here, I don’t have a home in Syria. I have a job here, I don’t have a job in Syria," she says.

"Right now, I don’t think any Syrian knows what to do. We are so overwhelmed with joy and sadness.”

Ahmed spoke of her joy witnessing the fall of the Assad regime and goes on to explain how she had been brought up in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor living her “whole life” in fear.

“I’m speaking to you now and I'm not afraid. It will take us a while to get rid of the fear. I've lived my whole life afraid to share my name,” she says.

Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

Image source, Nasila al-Abassi

I've been talking to the sister of a Syrian dentist who was arrested along with her six children back in 2013.

Rania Al-Abassi, the mother, was arrested at her home in Damascus in March 2013 by Syrian military intelligence officers. Her six children, aged between two and 14 years old, were taken to prison with her.

Rania's sister, Naila Al-Abassi, a doctor living in Saudi Arabia, says family members inside the country have begun looking for them to see if they're among the thousands of prisoners who were released after the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday.

"They took Rania with her kids and since that day we don't know anything about them," Naila says.

"We cannot accept that Rania was killed. Especially we want to see her six children again."

The family have only had one piece of information since the family's disappearance. A female inmate who was released told the family in 2013 that she heard the voices of children in the prison, two weeks after their arrest.

"We are seeing people released from prisons and looking at the videos to see if we can see them," Naila says.

"But the prisons have been opened and we haven't seen Rania yet. It is unbearable."

"We were waiting for this day for 11 years. But our wounds are still fresh now as if it happened yesterday."

• Continue reading about the families of Syrian detainees who have been searching for their missing loved ones

Image source, Naila Al-Abassi

Image source, Reuters

• The Israeli military has acknowledged its troops are operating in Syrian territory, beyond the demilitarised buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights - its defence minister says the IDF has been instructed to create a "sterile defence zone"
• Meanwhile, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, has said senior officials who were part of Assad's regime are wanted for their involvement in war crimes
• It comes after rebel fighters discovered 40 bodies in a hospital morgue that showed signs of torture
• Mohammed al-Bashir, who is affiliated with HTS, has been appointed as the country's interim prime minister until March 2025

• The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights says there have been more than 300 Israeli air strikes on Syrian territory since Sunday, targeting defence facilities. Israel says strikes were aimed to stop weapons from reaching extremists
• The UN's special envoy to Syria has condemned the air strikes, telling reporters the UN is "continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments in Syrian territory," adding: "this needs to stop"

We can now bring you another update from Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz, who earlier released a press statement following a visit to a naval base in Haifa.

The Israeli military says its navy carried out a “large scale operation” on Monday night, which targeted and "destroyed" a Syrian fleet.

In a statement, Katz goes on to say: “the navy operated last night to destroy the Syrian fleet with great success.”

It adds that the damage was inflicted “by the Navy’s missile ships”.

Katz says that this mission was part of a wider effort to “damage and destroy” any "strategic capabilities" that threaten Israel.

It comes as some Arab countries have already warned Israel that its reported operations beyond the demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights is a violation of Syria's sovereignty.

Image source, Getty Images

Image shows Israeli soldier outside buffer zone in Syriapublished at 15:22 Greenwich Mean Time 10 December 2024

15:22 GMT 10 December 2024

By Benedict Garman

BBC Verify has geolocated the below image of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier standing just over half a kilometre beyond the demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights, inside Syria on a hillside near the village of Kwdana.

We have also located a video of what appears to be a convoy of IDF vehicles moving through Kwdana beyond the buffer zone into Syria.

BBC Verify are yet to confirm the vehicles belong to the IDF, but they match those seen in a separate, verified video of IDF jeeps at a makeshift base in the buffer zone.

We have also geolocated a video which appears to show Israeli troops inside the buffer zone. In the video you can see about more than a dozen people in fatigues with what appear to be military vehicles nearby. An Israeli flag is visible on one of the vehicles.

The video is from about 500-600m (1,640ft-1,970ft) inside the buffer zone.

An IDF spokesperson has acknowledged some forces could be “operating in tactical points” on the Syrian side, but says their “focus is to maintain the buffer zone”.

He also denied they were “advancing on Damascus”.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Israel's defence minister is warning that it will not allow "an extremist Islamic terrorist entity" to threaten its borders and citizens.

Israel Katz's comments come after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged earlier for the first time that its troops are operating beyond the demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

In a press release, Katz went on to confirm that the Israeli military has been operating in recent days in Syria to "damage and destroy strategic capabilities" that it views as a threat.

"Whoever follows Assad's path will end up like Assad", Katz says, in a warning to Syria's new rebel leaders.

He adds that the IDF has been instructed to create a "sterile defence zone" in southern Syria "without a permanent Israeli presence".

Katz says this is to protect the residents of the Golan Heights as well Israeli citizens.