Live: Over 100,000 bodies found in mass grave near Damascus

Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

Large numbers of Russian transport aircraft have been spotted at the Khmeimim air base, while columns of Russian military vehicles have been filmed near Syria's coast amid what appears to be a withdrawal from Syria. 

Meanwhile, Syria's transition government has made its first complaint to the United Nation's over Israel's seizure of Syrian territory and attacks. 

Also speaking on Friday, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said  that the elimination of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) is a "strategic goal" of Ankara's in Syria. 

Other developments: 

• Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo with talks focused on Syria, MEE revealed 
• The Arab League condemned Israel's seizure of a buffer zone along the Golan Heights in Syrian territory
• Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led government handed over missing American citizen Travis Timmerman on Friday to American military officials 

Austria has become one of the first European countries offering to pay Syrian refugees who decide to return home, promising them 1,000 Euros. 

Karl Nehammer, the Chancellor of the Republic of Austria, made the announcement on Friday, adding that Austria's suspension of asylum procedures for Syrians would remain suspended.

"Austria will support Syrians, who wish to return to their home country, with a return bonus of 1,000 Euro. The country now needs its citizens in order to be rebuilt," he wrote on X. 

Some US officials believe that missing American journalist Austin Tice could have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Syria since the toppling of Bashar al-Assad's government, according to Reuters. 

Israel launched a massive air campaign targeting Syrian military sites after the government of Bashar al-Assad collapsed.

Tice, a former US Marine and freelance journalist, was taken captive in Syria in 2012. US officials have spent years trying to locate him and secure his release. US officials were in talks with the Assad government in the belief it was holding Tice captive. 

Now, US officials are also concerned that if Tice was being held in an underground Syrian prison cell, he may sufficated because Assad's forces shut off electricity providing air to prisons in Damascus. 

More than 100,000 Syrians, mainly of minority faiths, have fled Syria to Lebanon since Syrian rebels toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, according to a Reuters report on Friday.

Of the tens of thousands of Syrians who have fled, most are Shia Muslims, according to Lebanese officials who spoke with Reuters.

They fled after receiving threats, including on WhatsApp and Facebook, Reuters reported, citing Syrians at the border with Lebanon.

Syria's new transition government, mainly dominated by Sunni Muslims, has given assurances that minorities will be protected.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo with talks focused on Syria, as Egypt turns to Ankara to allay concerns about Syria’s new government, Middle East Eye reveals. 

Erdogan will attend a summit of developing nations, called the D-8, in the Egyptian capital on 19 December, one Egyptian official told Middle East Eye on Friday.

Egypt initially extended the invitation to Erdogan before the government of Bashar al-Assad was toppled in an offensive led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Turkish official confirmed to Middle East Eye on Friday.

The toppling of the Assad government, which had previously reconciled with Arab leaders despite hosting Iranian troops, has unnerved Arab states, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and even Qatar, with concerns about the former al-Qaeda affiliate taking power in Syria.

Turkey enjoys close ties to HTS, giving Turkey unrivalled influence in Syria's new government, western and regional officials say.

Read more: Turkey's Erdogan to visit Cairo with Syria high on agenda

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan provided new details about the toppling of Bashar Assad's government in Syria.

Fidan said on Friday that Turkey urged Russia and Iran not to intervene militarily to support Assad as Syrian rebels it has ties to mounted their lightning advance on Damascus.

"The most important thing was to talk to the Russians and Iranians to ensure that they didn't enter the equation militarily. We had meetings with [them], and they understood," Fidan told Turkey's NTV television.

He said if Moscow and Tehran, both key Assad allies since the start of the civil war in 2011, had come to the Syrian president's aid, the rebels could still have won but the outcome could have been far more violent. 

"If Assad had received support, the opposition could have achieved victory with their determination, but it would have taken a long time and could have been bloody," he said.

Turkey's aim was to "hold focused talks with the two important power players to ensure minimum loss of life", he added. 

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that the elimination of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) is a "strategic goal" of Ankara's in Syria. 

The YPG is the backbone of the of US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, which the US, EU and Turkey consider a terror group. The US does not consider the YPG a terror group. 

Fidan said Turkey had lobbied Russia and Iran not to support the collapsed government of Bashar al-Assad, to support a peaceful transition in Syria. 

He added that Turkey told Israel it should stop its attacks on Syria stop their seizure of a buffer zone in the Golan Heights. 

"We want to see a terror-free Syria, where minorities are not mistreated. We want an inclusive government in Syria," Fidan added in an interview broadcast live on NTV broadcaster. 

The Arab League condemned on Friday Israel's seizure of a buffer zone along the Golan Heights in Syrian territory. 

The Arab League said the seizure was a serious threat to regional and international peace, according to the Saudi Press Agency. 

It also condemned Israel's bombing campaign on Syria. 

Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led government handed over missing American citizen Travis Timmerman on Friday to American military officials, according to the Syrian government's political affairs office, which posted pictures of the meeting. 

HTS did not say where the handover occurred but posted images of an HTS official, Timmerman, and a US military official standing together. 

Timmerman said he was on a religious pilgrimage when Bashar al-Assad's government arrested him. He was freed with other Syrian prisoners and discovered by Syrian villagers after Assad's government fell over the weekend.

The handover was notable because it indicates direct US engagement with HTS despite the leaders of Syria's new government being on a US terror list. 

Syria's transition government has made its first complaint to the United Nation's over Israel's seizure of Syrian territory and attacks 

Syria's new government said the land grab was a "serious violation" of a 1974 armistice agreement between Israel and Syria. The letter also rebuked Israel for air strikes across the country. 

"The Syrian Arab Republic condemns in the strongest terms this Israeli aggression," the letter said.

Israeli troops moved into a UN-designated buffer zone between Syria and Israel after the Bashar al-Assad government was toppled and began a widescale bombing campaign to destroy Syria's military. 

Arab states, including Egypt and Qatar, condemned the land grab and strikes. 

Large numbers of Russian transport aircraft have been spotted at the Khmeimim air base, while columns of Russian military vehicles have been filmed near Syria's coast amid what appears to be a withdrawal from Syria. 

Video footage on social media on Friday showed columns of Russian armoured vehicles and trunks near Syria's coast. MEE could not immediately verify the videos. 

But analysts said it appeared Russia was evacuating troops, including packing up an S-400 air defence battery. 

"While tactical aviation is still there, RF appears to be consolidating at Khmeimim and Tartus. In short, a withdrawal is under way," Michael Kofman, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote on X. 

Two years after our conversation with Waad al-Kateab about the desperate plight of Syrian refugees, we return to have a very different conversation.

Less than a week after the dramatic and unexpected collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal reign, Syrians are beginning to dream once again of a future they believed had died.

Waad al-Kateab and her family had settled in the UK, though they continued to fight to speak on behalf of refugees and the Syrian revolution which they refused to give up on no matter how bleak the situation seemed.

In her Oscar-nominated film ‘For Sama’, Kateab documented the last days of her city of Aleppo, besieged by Assad’s forces for five years and reduced to rubble.

Today, she counts the days until she can return to her childhood home. You can watch the full interview below. 

Thousands of Syrians flooded the Ummayad Mosque in the Old City on Friday for the first Friday prayers held since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad six days ago.

Abu Mohammed Golani, the rebel leader who led the lightning offensive that toppled the regime, had told Syrians to stop working on Friday and to celebrate.

Across Souk Hammidiyah, the labyrinthine market place, the shutters of shops were rolled down, still sporting the two-star flags of an old Syria.

But lining the main street were people selling revolutionary flags, which many toted in the crush past Roman ruins on the way to the 1,300-year old mosque at the heart of the Old City.

Abdullah Mohammed, 41, lives in Damascus and rarely attends Friday prayers at the Ummayad Mosque, but said he made an exception this Friday.

“Today is special. Before, we were slaves, but now we are free and we can say whatever we want,” Mohammed told Middle East Eye. “May god give us better days ahead.”

You can read Omar al-Aswad and Daniel Hilton's full report from Damascus below. 

Read more: Crowds flock to Umayyad Mosque for Syria's first Friday prayers after Assad

A recent poll conducted in Turkey has revealed that a majority of the public in the country is satisfied with the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Just over 51 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the collapse of the Assad dynasty, while 27 percent expressed neutrality on the matter. 

The poll was carried out by Stracom, a research and consultancy firm, between December 8 and 11.

Since the start of the Syrian civil war, the Turkish government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been a key backer of the the Syrian opposition, which spent close to 14 years trying to depose Assad.

In contrast, the Turkish opposition has periodically urged the president to engage with Assad to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Read more: A slim majority of Turks sees Assad dynasty's fall as positive