Live Blog Update| Syria War
This is an entry from: Live: Over 100,000 bodies found in mass grave near Damascus

Evening recap

9 December 2024 23:46 GMT

Our liveblog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

-Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have appointed an interim prime minister to administer Syria following the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad. Mohammed al-Bashir, who was previously head of the HTS-backed government in Idlib, was announced on Monday to temporarily take over the country's running.

-Over 4,000 Syrian army soldiers have fled to Iraq following the fall of Damascus to rebel forces and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, reported AP. The official said the soldiers surrendered their weapons, ammunition, and armoured vehicles before being relocated to a camp, though its exact location was not disclosed.

-Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday that Turkey expects international actors and the United Nations to back the Syrian people in establishing a comprehensive administration, reported Anadolu Agency.

-The Reuters news agency is reporting that HTS-led rebels have granted amnesty to all military personnel conscripted into service during ousted President Bashar al-Assad's rule, citing sources on the Telegram platform. 

-Yemen's Houthis said they would support Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) if they moved to confront Israel's incursions into Syria.

-A Syrian opposition source has told Reuters that the US and Turkey have reached a deal for the US-backed Kurdish forces, otherwise known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to withdraw from the besieged town of Manbij, in northeastern Aleppo, Syria.

-Israel bombed more than 100 sites across western Syria on Monday, in an act that the US called "self-defence".

-The US says that journalist and former US Marine Austin Tice is still alive in Syria, where he has been held in Syria since 2012. Washington has deployed hostage affairs envoy Roger Carstens to Beirut as part of "intensive efforts" to find Tice after the fall of the Assad regime, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday.

-Washington will seek to contact Syrian rebel factions, including Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller indicated to reporters on Monday. "We do have the ability to engage with organizations [that] have been designated [as terrorists]," Miller said.