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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s prime minister said Monday that most ministers are still working from offices in Damascus after rebels overran the capital this weekend and President Bashar Assad was overthrown. Streams of refugees returned to Syria from neighboring countries, hoping for a more peaceful future.
But there were already signs of trouble ahead for the rebel alliance that now controls much of the country and is led by the rebels a former high-ranking al-Qaeda militant who cut ties with the extremist group years ago and promised a representative government and religious tolerance.
The rebel command said on Monday it would not tell women how to dress.
“It is strictly prohibited to interfere with the dress of women or impose requests regarding their dress or appearance, including requests for modesty,” the General Command said in a statement on social media.
Meanwhile, some key government services were closed as state workers ignored calls to return to their jobs, a UN official said, causing problems at airports and borders and slowing the flow of humanitarian aid.
Israel said it is carrying out airstrikes on suspected chemical weapons and long-range missile sites to prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists. Israel also seized a buffer zone inside Syria after Syrian forces withdrew.
In northern Syria, Turkey says allied opposition forces have captured the city of Manbij by Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States. This is a reminder that even after Assad’s departure to Russia, the country remains divided among armed groups that have fought in the past.
That’s what the Kremlin said Russia has granted Assad political asyluma decision by President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Assad’s specific whereabouts, saying Putin had no plans to meet him.
Damascus was quiet on Monday as life slowly returned to normal with most shops and public institutions closed. In the public squares, some people were still partying. Civil traffic resumed, but there was no public transportation. Long lines formed outside bakeries and other food stores.
There was little sign of any security, and Associated Press reporters spotted a pair of SUVs on the side of a main boulevard that appeared to have been broken into.
In some areas, small groups of armed men were stationed on the streets. In a video circulating online, a man in military gear was seen holding a rifle and trying to reassure residents of Damascus’s Mezzeh neighborhood that they would not be harmed.
“We have nothing against you, neither Alawites, nor Christians, nor Shiites, nor Druze, but everyone must behave well, and no one should try to attack us,” the fighter said.
The Prime Minister says the government is still operational
Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali, who remained in his post after Assad and most of his top officials disappeared this weekend, has tried to project normality.
“We are working to make the transition period quick and smooth,” he told Sky News Arabia TV on Monday, saying the security situation had already improved from the day before.
He said the government is working with the rebels and that he is ready to meet with rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who made a triumphant appearance at a famous mosque in Damascus on Sunday.
Syrians who only a few days ago worked at all levels of the bureaucracy in Assad’s government were adapting to the new reality.
At the court in Damascus, which was stormed by rebels to free prisoners, Judge Khitam Haddad, an assistant to the justice minister in the outgoing government, said on Sunday that judges were ready to quickly resume their work.
“We want to give everyone their rights,” Haddad said outside the courthouse. “We want to build a new Syria and keep the work going, but with new methods.”
But a UN official said some government services were paralyzed as concerned state workers stayed home.
The public sector “has just come to a complete and abrupt halt,” said Adam Abdelmoula, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Syria, noting, for example, that an aid flight carrying urgently needed medical supplies was suspended after airline workers abandoned their flight. jobs.
“This is a country that has had one government for 53 years and then suddenly all those who have been demonized by the public media are now in charge in the nation’s capital,” Abdelmoula told The Associated Press.
In addition, a Syrian opposition war monitor said a top aide to Assad’s brother Maher was found dead in his office near Damascus. A video circulating on social media reportedly showed Major General Ali Mahmoud covered in blood and with his clothes burned. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not clear whether he was killed or died by suicide.
Maher Assad led the army’s 4th Armored Division, which played a key role in the civil war that broke out in 2011 after a popular uprising against Assad led to a violent crackdown on dissent and the rise of an uprising.
Israel confirms it has hit suspected chemical weapons and missiles
Israelis welcomed the fall of Assad, who was a key ally of the militant group Hezbollah in Iran and Lebanon, while expressing concern about what comes next. Israel says its forces have temporarily seized a buffer zone in Syria dating back to a 1974 agreement, after Syrian forces withdrew amid the chaos.
“The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters on Monday. “That is why we have attacked strategic weapon systems, such as the remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, so that they do not fall into the hands of extremists.”
Saar did not provide details about when and where the strikes took place.
An AP journalist in Damascus reported on Sunday air strikes in the vicinity of the Mezzeh military airport, southwest of the capital. The airport has previously been the target of Israeli airstrikes. There were also strikes in the capital on Monday.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting what it claims are military sites Iran and Hezbollah. Israeli officials rarely comment on individual attacks.
Syria agreed to give up its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2013 after the government was accused of launching them an attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people. But it is widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of reusing them in subsequent years.
Turkey says its allies have captured the northern city
Officials inside Turkey, Who is the main supporter of the Syrian opposition to Assad, says his allies have taken full control of the northern Syrian city of Manbij from a US-backed and Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF said a Turkish drone struck the village of al-Mistriha in eastern Syria, killing 12 civilians, including six children.
Turkey views the SDF, which consists mainly of a Syrian Kurdish militia, as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency in Turkey for decades. The SDF has also been a key ally of the United States in the war against the Islamic State group.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday expressed hope for a new era in Syria in which ethnic and religious groups can live peacefully under an inclusive government. But he warned that Islamic State fighters or Kurdish fighters would not take advantage of the situation, saying Turkey will prevent Syria from turning into a “haven for terrorism.”
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Mroue reported from Beirut and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
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