Residents remove rubble from damaged buildings in the al-Hajar al-Aswad neighbourhood on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Syrian government soldiers flash victory signs as they sit on the top of a tank while entering the town of Deir Hafer, Syria on January 17, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Civilians evacuate an area of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, on January 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Kurdish fighters rejected a call to leave Syria’s Aleppo on Friday (January 9, 2026) after the government announced a truce in deadly fighting that forced thousands of civilians to flee.

Since Tuesday (January 6, 2026), government forces had been fighting the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Aleppo, the country’s second city.

The violence killed 21 people and was the latest challenge for a country still struggling to forge a new path after Islamist authorities ousted long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad just over a year ago.

It also forced around 30,000 families to flee their homes, according to the U.N..

Both sides traded blame over who started the fighting, which came as they struggled to implement a deal to merge the Kurds’ administration and military into the country’s new government.

On Friday (January 9, 2026), the Defence Ministry announced a ceasefire in the fighting with the SDF, which controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the defeat of the Islamic State group in 2019.

“To prevent any slide towards a new military escalation within residential neighbourhoods, the Ministry of Defence announces … a ceasefire in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsud, Ashrafiyeh and Bani Zeid neighbourhoods of Aleppo, effective from 3:00 a.m.,” the Ministry wrote in a statement.

Kurdish fighters were given until 9:00 a.m. Friday (January 9, 2026) to leave the three neighbourhoods, while the Aleppo governorate said the fighters would be sent, along with their light weapons, to Kurdish areas further east.

Hours later, the local councils of Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh said the Kurdish fighters would not leave.

“We have decided to remain in our districts and defend them,” the statement said, rejecting any “surrender”.

An AFP photographer located on the edge of Ashrafiyeh saw members of the security forces enter the area, as well as vehicles that appeared to be preparing to evacuate Kurdish fighters.

The United States welcomed the ceasefire in a post on X by its envoy Tom Barrack.

He said Washington hoped for “a more enduring calm and deeper dialogue” and was “working intensively to extend this ceasefire and spirit of understanding”.

‘Children were terrified’

An AFP correspondent reported fierce fighting across Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud districts into Thursday (January 8, 2026) night. On Friday (January 9, 2026) morning, the truce appeared to be holding.

Syria’s military had instructed civilians in those neighbourhoods to leave through humanitarian corridors ahead of launching the operation.

State television reported that around 16,000 people had fled on Thursday (January 8, 2026) alone.

“We’ve gone through very difficult times… my children were terrified,” said Rana Issa, 43, whose family left Ashrafiyeh on Thursday (January 8, 2026).

“Many people want to leave”, but are afraid of the snipers, she told AFP.

Mazloum Abdi, who leads the SDF, said attacks on Kurdish areas “undermine the chances of reaching understandings”, days after he visited Damascus for talks on the March integration deal.

The agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, have stymied progress.

Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.

Turkiye, which shares a 900-kilometre border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.

Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century International research centre, told AFP that “Aleppo is the SDF’s most vulnerable area”.

“Both sides are still trying to put pressure on each other and rally international support,” he said.

He warned that if the hostilities spiral, “a full Damascus-SDF conflict across northern Syria, potentially with Turkish and Israeli involvement, could be devastating for Syria’s stability”.

Israel and Turkiye have been vying for influence in Syria since Assad was toppled in December 2024.

In Qamishli in the Kurdish-held northeast, hundreds of people have protested the Aleppo violence.

“We call on the international community to intervene,” said protester Salaheddin Sheikhmous, 61, while others held banners reading “no to war” and “no to ethnic cleansing”.

Published – January 09, 2026 07:25 pm IST

Syria’s new authorities launched an operation in a stronghold of ousted president Bashar al-Assad on Thursday (December 26, 2024), with a war monitor saying three gunmen affiliated with the former government were killed.

What’s happening in Syria? Explained

Assad fled Syria after an Islamist-led offensive wrested from his control city after city until Damascus fell on December 8, ending his clan’s five-decade rule.

After 13 years of civil war sparked by Assad’s crackdown on democracy protests, Syria’s new leaders from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) face the monumental task of safeguarding the multi-sectarian, multi-ethnic country from further collapse.

Rooted in Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, a Sunni Muslim jihadist group, HTS has moderated its rhetoric and vowed to ensure protection for minorities, including the Alawite community from which Assad hails.

With 500,000 dead in the war and more than 100,000 missing, the new authorities have also pledged justice for the victims of abuses under the deposed ruler.

On Thursday, state news agency SANA said security forces launched an operation against pro-Assad militias in the western province of Tartus, “neutralising a certain number” of armed men.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, three gunmen linked with Assad’s government were killed in the operation.

It comes a day after 14 security personnel of the new authorities and three gunmen were killed in clashes in the same province when forces tried to arrest an Assad-era officer, according to the Observatory.

The Britain-based monitor said the wanted man, Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, was a military justice official who had “issued death sentences and arbitrary judgements against thousands” of detainees at the notorious Saydnaya prison complex.

Hate or revenge

The Saydnaya complex, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomised the atrocities committed against Assad’s opponents.

The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of his rule.

During the offensive that precipitated Assad’s ousting, rebels flung open the doors of prisons and detention centres around the country, letting out thousands of people.

In central Damascus, relatives of some of the missing have hung up posters of their loved ones, in the hope that with Assad’s ouster, they may one day learn what happened to them.

World powers and international organisations have called for the urgent establishment of mechanisms for accountability.

But some members of the Alawite community fear that with Assad gone, they may be at risk of attacks from groups hungry for revenge or driven by sectarian hate.

On Wednesday, angry protests erupted in several areas around Syria, including Assad’s hometown of Qardaha, over a video showing an attack on an Alawite shrine that circulated online.

The Observatory said that one demonstrator was killed and five others wounded “after security forces… opened fire to disperse” a crowd in the central city of Homs.

We want peace

The transitional authorities appointed by HTS said in a statement that the shrine attack took place early this month, with the interior ministry saying it was carried out by “unknown groups” and that republishing the video served to “stir up strife”.

On Thursday, the information ministry introduced a ban on publishing or distributing “any content or information with a sectarian nature aimed at spreading division and discrimination”.

In one of Wednesday’s protests over the video, large crowds chanted slogans including “Alawite, Sunni, we want peace”.

Assad long presented himself as a protector of minority groups in Sunni-majority Syria, though critics said he played on sectarian divisions to stay in power.

In Homs, where the authorities imposed a nighttime curfew, 42-year-old resident Hadi reported “a vast deployment of HTS men in areas where there were protests”.

“There is a lot of fear,” he said.

In coastal Latakia, protester Ghidak Mayya, 30, said that for now, Alawites were “listening to calls for calm”, but putting too much pressure on the community “risks an explosion”.

Noting the anxieties, Sam Heller of the Century Foundation think tank told AFP Syria’s new rulers had to balance dealing with sectarian tensions while promising that those responsible for abuses under Assad would be held accountable.

“But they’re obviously also contending with what seems like a real desire on the part of some of their constituents for what they would say is accountability, maybe also revenge, it depends on how you want to characterise it,” he said.

Since HTS and its allies swept to power earlier this month, a bevy of delegations from the Middle East, Europe and the United States have visited Damascus seeking to establish ties with the country’s new rulers.

A delegation from Iraq met with the new authorities Thursday to discuss “security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border”, Iraqi state media said, while Lebanon, which has a fraught history with Syria, said it hoped for better ties with its neighbour going forward.

Watch: Who is Mohammad al-Bashir, Syria’s caretaker Prime Minister?

After 13 years of brutal war, Syria’s divided and devastated nation faces a new chapter. Mohammad Al-Bashir, an engineering graduate turned rebel leader, steps into the spotlight as caretaker Prime Minister. But can he unite a fractured country and navigate the immense challenges of rebuilding Syria? Let’s dive into the story of this pivotal leader.

Born in 1983 in Jabal al-Zawiya, Idlib Province, Mohammad Al-Bashir has a background that’s as layered as Syria’s ongoing conflict. A graduate of Aleppo University in electrical and electronic engineering, he also studied Islamic and civil law at Idlib University. Before the war, he worked for Syria’s state gas company—a career path far removed from his current reality.

Al-Bashir became the head of Idlib’s rebel administration—known as the “Salvation Government”—in January 2024. This government, established in 2017, operates ministries, departments, judicial, and security systems for a population of over five million. It was a lifeline for people in rebel-held areas cut off from national services. But running a local government is a far cry from leading a war-torn nation.

The dynamics shifted dramatically after the rebel coalition’s lightning offensive on November 27. In a matter of days, they captured key territories, including Aleppo and Damascus, effectively toppling Bashar al-Assad’s decades-long dynasty. Al-Bashir’s new role as caretaker Prime Minister now places him in the traditional seat of power: Damascus.

In his first public appearance outside Idlib, Al-Bashir, wearing a grey suit and gold watch, sat beside rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. While Jolani praised Idlib’s governance as “highly experienced,” he acknowledged the monumental task ahead: managing a divided country, poverty, and competing factions vying for control of former government strongholds.

Radwan Ziadeh, a senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC, called Al-Bashir “the closest” to the rebels’ joint operations room. But he stressed that Syria’s transitional process must involve all Syrians to ensure a peaceful shift to democracy. Al-Bashir’s success will depend on unity, inclusivity, and addressing the basic needs of a war-torn population.

As Mohammad Al-Bashir steps into national leadership, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Rebuilding Syria requires more than political maneuvering—it demands a collective effort to heal a nation torn apart. Will he rise to the challenge? Only time will tell.

A torn posters shows the late Syrian President Hafez Assad and his son the ousted Syrian president Bashar Assad, that were set at the entrance of the notorious security detention centre called Palestine Branch, in Damascus, Syria, on December 14, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The story so far:Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria for 24 years, has fallen. He and his family have taken refuge in Russia. Syria now has a transitional government, headed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist militant group that was controlling the northwestern province of Idlib. Many Syrians are celebrating the collapse of Mr. Assad’s dictatorial regime, but remain anxious about what is to come. Turkey, as the main backer of the HTS, sees an opportunity to expand its influence in West Asia, while Iran and Russia, the main backers of the Assad regime, have taken a setback. Israel, in the meantime, is exploiting the vacuum in Syria to grab more territories.

Why did the Assad regime fall?

Mr. Assad held on to power for 13 years after the civil war broke out in 2011, only for his regime to collapse in 12 days. By 2017, the Assad regime had taken over most of its lost territories, with help from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. But he hadn’t defeated the militants. The strongest of them was the HTS, which was formerly called Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda arm in Syria. Abu Muhammed al-Jolani, today the ‘emir’ of the HTS, was an al-Qaeda leader. The HTS-controlled Idlib emerged as a rebel stronghold. Jolani established a mini-administration in Idlib — the Syrian Salvation Government. He had been planning a large-scale offensive against the regime forces for months, if not years.

Also read | Twelve days that shook Syria 

On the other side, a host of domestic, regional and international factors weakened Mr. Assad’s position. Syria’s economy is in a very bad shape. Its GDP shrank by 87% in the past 13 years, from $68 billion in 2011 to just $9 billion in 2023. Western sanctions stifled an already deteriorated economy further. The poorly paid soldiers of the Assad regime lacked motivation to preserve it. Syrian armed forces were also weakened by repeated Israeli air strikes, which picked up pace over the past year, after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack. Mr. Assad was heavily reliant on his external allies for security. However, their priorities also changed in recent years. Russia’s focus is now on the Ukraine war. Iran is involved in a hot and cold war with Israel. Hezbollah lost most of its leaders and thousands of fighters in its year-long war with Israel. The militants knew Mr. Assad was weak.

They launched an offensive on November 27 in the western outskirts of Aleppo, probably aimed at cutting the underbelly of his decaying regime. What happened next was a rapid collapse of the regime itself.

Who is in charge now?

Syria today has roughly four militant coalitions. The first one is the HTS, led by Jolani. The HTS says it has broken its ties with al-Qaeda, and promises to respect Syria’s ethnic and religious diversity. But its rank and file comprise transnational jihadists, who travelled to Syria from across the world, to fight “jihad” against the Assad regime. The HTS’s main ally is the Syrian National Army (SNA), another northern militia. The core of the SNA is the Free Syrian Army, a Turkish proxy that was formed with defected Syrian soldiers and officers. The HTS and the SNA launched the November 27 offensive together.

The second group is the Southern Front, a loose coalition of dozens of militias in Syria’s south (Daara and Quneitra). Some of them were backed by Jordan, which shares a border with southern Syria. When the HTS-SNA combine advanced towards regime-held cities from the north, the southern militias started an offensive from the south. And they reached Damascus first, on December 8. The third main group is the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The core of the SDF is the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of Syrian Kurdistan. The SDF enjoys relative autonomy in the Syrian Kurdish region. The SDF was armed by the U.S. in the past in its fight against the Islamic State. The fourth group is the Alawite militias in the coastal region. Alawites are Mr. Assad’s sect, who enjoyed power for over five decades in the country. The HTS, a Sunni Islamist group, had in the past targeted Alawites, who make up roughly 15% of Syria’s population. The HTS has asked the Alawite community to cut ties with the fallen regime. Of these four, the HTS is the most powerful force now. The transition government in Damascus is a replica of the HTS Salvation government in Idlib.

Why does geopolitics matter?

Syria has immense geopolitical significance. It hosts Russia’s Mediterranean naval base in Tartus, its only naval base outside the former Soviet territory. Russia also has built an air base in Syria. For Russia to project force, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and then to the Atlantic, it is essential to retain access to the Tartus base. It could also be one of the reasons Russia made a military intervention in Syria in 2015, to protect the Assad regime. Now that the regime has collapsed, Russia’s focus would be on protecting its bases. For Iran, a sworn enemy of America and Israel, Syria was its only state ally in West Asia. Syria was also a key conduit between Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia. The fall of the Assad regime could disrupt Iran’s supply networks in the region, which could invariably weaken the country’s deterrence.

Turkey, on the other side, appears to be stronger. For years, it had tried to pull down the Assad regime. When the Russian intervention made it immediately impossible, Turkey shifted its focus towards playing a long game with its proxies. Now that Mr. Assad is gone and the HTS-SNA coalition is in Damascus, Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to have outwitted Vladimir Putin, and extended his influence from Ankara to the borders of Iraq, Jordan and Israel.

Will the militants build a new Syria?

Many think the fall of a dictatorial regime would lead to a new dawn. For now, Syria’s militants have made the right noises — about respecting the country’s diversity and rebuilding its dilapidated institutions and welcoming back refugees. But Syria still remains a complex case — with or without Mr. Assad. Before Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, captured power in 1971, Syria had seen multiple coups and counter-coups. It was Hafez and his Ba’ath party that stabilised the country and built its modern institutions. Today, the challenge the militants face is to rebuild the country once again, by demobilising the militias. But the HTS neither has ideological clarity for an inclusive Syria nor the resources to demobilise other militias. The HTS is a Salafi-jihadist outfit, which wants to remake secular Syria and retain its tight grip over state institutions. If the HTS’s rule in Idlib is an example, the group is not any less dictatorial than Mr. Assad. The southern militias, backed by Jordan, would want to get their due share of power. And in the east, the SDF, the Kurdish militia, wants to keep their hard-earned autonomy. But Turkey sees the SDF as a terrorist outfit, and Turkish-backed militias have already started attacking the SDF.

In Afghanistan, throughout the 1980s, the U.S. and Pakistan-backed Mujahideen fought together against the communist regime as well as the Soviet troops. But after the Soviet withdrawal and the collapse of the communist rule, Afghanistan fell into deeper chaos. In Libya, NATO made a military intervention in 2011 to “liberate” the country from Mohammed Gaddafi. After Gaddafi’s regime, one of the most stable governments in Africa, was toppled and he was killed, the country fell into a bloody civil war — which is still going on. Iraq never recovered from the scars of America’s regime change war of 2003. None of these examples are encouraging for Syria.

Damascus, Syria:

Syria should have an 18 month transition period to establish “a safe, neutral, and quiet environment” for free elections, Hadi Al-Bahra, the head of Syria’s main opposition abroad, said to Reuters on the sidelines of the Doha Forum on Sunday.

In a seismic moment for the Middle East, Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Sunday, forcing President Bashar al-Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war, ending his family’s decades-long rule.

The lightning offensive sparked concerns in Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability, as well as questions over whether the rebels will be able to ensure an orderly transition.

Al-Bahra, President of the Syrian National Coalition, said Syria should draft a constitution within six months, on which the first election would be a referendum.

“The constitution will say, are we going to have a parliamentary system, presidential system, or mixed system? And based on this, we do the election and the people choose their leader,” said Al-Bahra.

He added that the opposition had asked state employees to continue to report to work until the power transition, and assured them that they would not be harmed.

Assad’s swift toppling followed a shift in the balance of power in the Middle East after many leaders of Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, a lynchpin of Assad’s battlefield force, were killed by Israel over the past two months. Russia, Assad’s other key ally, has been focused on the war in Ukraine.

“It was like a domino effect. So it was clear that (Assad) decided to leave. I felt relief, but also a little sad. He should be held accountable for all the crimes that he did,” Al-Bahra said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Paris:

More than 13 years since Bashar al-Assad’s security forces opened fire on protesters demanding democratic reforms, the Syrian president’s grip on power may finally be weakening.

The 59-year-old son and heir of late dictator Hafez al-Assad has faced several setbacks during the long civil war triggered by his brutal crackdown in March 2011, but has so far managed to cling on to power.

Now, with his Lebanese ally Hezbollah reeling from an Israeli onslaught and his great power backer Russia distracted by its invasion of Ukraine, Assad is running short of friends on the battlefield.

Key cities in the north, including Aleppo and Hama have fallen to opposition fighters in just a matter of days.

And on Saturday the rebels said they are now encircling the capital where Assad has ruled since the death of his father in 2000.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed the rebel advance; Israel is reinforcing its forces in the occupied Golan; and Syria’s southern neighbour Jordan is organising an evacuation of its citizens.

In a further sign of Assad’s isolation, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) group, which controls much of northeast Syria, said it was ready to speak to its foes among the Turkish-backed rebels.

But international observers have repeatedly predicted the isolated former ophthalmologist’s fall since the earliest months of the uprising, and they have repeatedly been incorrect.

The 2011 protests against Assad’s rule began after a teenager was arrested for allegedly scrawling anti-government graffiti in the southern town of Daraa.

Stunning advance

Now, for Assad’s rule, the “writing is on the wall”, Joshua Landis, of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma told AFP. “Things are folding very quickly.”

The rebel advance has been stunning.

After Aleppo and Hama fell in quick succession, the rebels and government forces were clashing Saturday near the major city of Homs.

Its capture would effectively cut Assad’s capital off from his support base in the Alawite minority community in the coastal highlands.

“The Alawite minority has lost faith in Assad,” Landis said. “There are serious questions about whether the Syrian army has any fight left.”

But some caution is merited. After all, haven’t world leaders underestimated Assad before?

As early as November 2011, Turkey’s Erdogan urged Assad to hold free elections and warned that his “office is only temporary”.

In October 2012, during a re-election campaign debate, US president Barack Obama also warned Assad that his “days are numbered”.

The next month, Nabil Elaraby, then the head of the Arab League, declared “everyone knows that the regime in Syria will not remain for long”.

The Syrian strongman defied them all, even as international lawyers drew up arrest warrants for war crimes and rights groups denounced Syria’s use of chemical weapons and aerial bombardment in civilian areas.

As the civil war spiralled into overlapping regional conflicts — government versus rebels, Turkey versus Kurdish fighters, US-backed militias against Islamic State group jihadists — Assad retained his grip.

At first he was ostracised by many fellow Arab leaders, leaning instead on Iranian and Russian support, but as it became clear he was not leaving the stage diplomatic ties quietly resumed.

Rebel victories

And meanwhile, Russia and Iran had Assad’s back. Lebanon’s pro-Iran Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters, backed by Iranian advisers, to bolster Syrian government forces. Russia carried out air strikes.

But the speed of this week’s rebel victories seems to suggest that without his powerful foreign friends, Assad’s Syrian army is a hollow shell.

Russia has such little confidence in its ally that its embassy has acknowledged a “difficult military and political situation”.

Before the recent ceasefire in its conflict with Israel, Hezbollah lost thousands of fighters and weapons and its long-standing chief Hassan Nasrallah.

It appears to be in no position to help, despite a Hezbollah source saying Saturday it had sent 2,000 fighters into Syria’s Qusayr area “to defend its positions”.

“The Assad government is in its most precarious position since the summer of 2012,” Nick Heras, an analyst at the New Lines Institute, told AFP.

“There is a real risk that the Assad government could lose power in Damascus, either through battles or through a negotiated retreat.

“Ultimately, the Assad government’s ability to survive will depend on the extent to which Iran and Russia see Assad as useful to their strategies in the region.”

Heras said that Russia, which has a naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus, would be loath to withdraw its military personnel and assets from the country, and Iran would be similarly reluctant to abandon Assad.

“If either or both of those allies decide they can advance their interests without Assad, then his days in power are numbered,” Heras said.

The winners would be Assad’s main regional opponents: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkey’s Erdogan, who both faced periods of intense domestic criticism only to emerge victorious in war.

Turkey-backed rebels are now spearheading the opposition advance on Homs, and Israeli air strikes against Hezbollah and Iranian targets in Syria have effectively neutralised Assad’s most potent backer.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

WASHINGTON:

President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday the US should not be involved in the conflict in Syria, where rebel forces are threatening the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

Trump said because Russia, an Assad ally, is tied up fighting a war with Ukraine it “seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.”

If Russia were forced out of Syria, it “may actually be the best thing that can happen to them” because “there was never much of a benefit in Syria for Russia,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments appeared to reflect his opposition to the presence of some 900 US troops in Syria, mostly of them in the northeast, where they have backed a Syrian Kurd-led alliance in preventing a resurgence of Islamic State militants.
Trump announced in 2018 during his first term that he wanted to withdraw the US troops because he said Islamic State was near defeat.

But he held off as advisers warned that a pullout would leave a void that would be filled by Iran and Russia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)