Who are the Syrian rebels claiming control of Damascus?
Rebel forces claim to have taken control of the Syrian capital after storming through the country in less than two weeks.
According to reports, authoritarian ruler Bashar al Assad has fled Damascus on a plane headed to an unknown destination, ending his 24-year rule.
While Syrians celebrate in the streets with chants for freedom, attention will also turn to the insurgents and what happens next.
Who are the rebels?
The initial assault on regime forces, which began in the northern city of Aleppo last week, was carried out by a variety of Mr Assad’s opponents.
This included rebels under the banner of the Syrian National Army, backed by Turkey, but the offensive has mostly been led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS).
Once known as the Nusra Front, a former wing of al Qaeda, HTS is said to have around 30,000 troops and has long been designated a terrorist group by the US and Russia.
It was formed to oppose the Syrian government and was founded by Abu Muhammed al Jolani, cutting ties with al Qaeda in 2016 and making an effort to appear moderate.
Read more: Latest as Assad ‘flees’ Syria
Rebel fighters in the city of Homs. Pic: Reuters
As rebels entered Aleppo, video showed him issuing orders by phone, forbidding fighters from entering homes and reminding them to protect citizens.
Aron Lund, a fellow at think-tank Century International, said Mr Jolani and HTS have clearly changed, while adding they remain “pretty hardline”.
“It’s PR, but the fact they are engaging in this effort at all shows they are no longer as rigid as they once were,” he said.
“Old-school al Qaeda or the Islamic State would never have done that.”
But the US’s Commission on International Religious Freedom said in 2022 that despite the “rebrand”, HTS “restricts religious freedom” and threatens the safety of religious minorities.
What plans do they have?
Mr Jolani, himself designated a terrorist by the US in 2013, has tried to reassure Syrian minorities who fear jihadists.
In 2023, he allowed the first Christian mass in years in the northwestern city of Idlib, and on Wednesday insisted he would protect residents of a Christian town south of Aleppo.
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Syrian rebels announce Damascus ‘freed’
The group’s political plans remain to be seen, with Robert Ford, former US ambassador to Syria, telling Sky News he has not seen “detailed programs”.
“We don’t know exactly what they’re going to do,” he said. “I would say here that after a 13-year incredibly bloody and vicious civil war, right now it’s a day for Syrians to celebrate, and to hope for things that will turn out better.
“There will be plenty of hard work quickly waiting for them.”
Why has this happened now?
These anti-Assad victories are years in the making, more than a decade on from the start of Syrian civil war.
But the rapid rebel progress has stunned the international community.
Key locations in Syria as well as the Iraqi town of Al Qaim, where troops sought refuge.
Former head of the British Army’s chemical weapons unit, Hamish De Bretton-Gordon, said the timing is “no coincidence”.
“With Hezbollah much diminished, the Iranian proxy in the region, and also other Iranian militias, it gave the rebels an opportunity,” he told Sky News.
“With Russia taking so many forces away from Syria to bolster their special military operation in Ukraine, it left Assad exposed and the rebels have really taken advantage of it.”
What other nations have interests in Syria?
The assault had raised the prospect of another front reopening in the Middle East, at a time when US-backed Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both Iran-allied groups.
Russia, which was Mr Assad’s main international backer, is also preoccupied with its war in Ukraine.
Previous military intervention by Russia and Iran – alongside support from other groups – had allowed Mr Assad to remain in power and retain 70% of Syria under his control.
Read more:
Middle East power dynamics will utterly change
Fast-moving conflict is unique geopolitical challenge
The US has about 900 troops in northeast Syria to guard against a resurgence by the Islamic State, which was defeated in Syria and Iraq by 2019, by a US-led coalition that included Kurdish fighters and UK air support.
Turkey, which also opposes Kurdish expansion, has forces in Syria alongside its reported influence with the broad alliance of opposition forces.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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