The SDF have agreed a ceasefire with Turkish-backed Syrian rebels in Manbij, an until recently Kurdish-controlled city in northern Syria. The agreement was reached through US mediation, reports SDF commander Mazloum Abdi. According to SDF commander Abdi, the truce was necessary ‘to ensure the safety of civilians in Manbij’. Over the past three days, at least 218 people have been killed in fighting for control of Manbij, reports the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Kurdish fighters will withdraw from the area ‘as soon as possible’, Abdi said.
Syrian interim Prime Minister Mohammad al-Bashir is calling on Syrian refugees to return to their homeland. He made that call in Corriere della Sera, Italy's most widely read newspaper. It was his first interview with a Western daily. Although Bashir will hold the post for only a few months, he will be in charge during an important period. He will have to demonstrate to the international community that minorities are safe under the rule of HTS Islamists. Partly due to the unclear political situation in Syria, the Dutch government decided on Monday not to make any decisions on asylum applications from Syrians for the next six months. ‘My appeal to all Syrians abroad: come back,’ Bashir told Corriere. ‘Syria is now a free country, which has regained its pride and dignity.’ According to Bashir, the new government's first agenda item is to bring stability and security back to Syria. This requires the second action point he mentions: bringing back millions of Syrians who have fled. ‘This human capital is needed to revive the country.’
Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (previously acting under his militant name Abu Mohammed al-Jolani) made it clear on Wednesday that those involved in torturing prisoners will not be pardoned. In recent days, thousands were freed from the Assad clan's notorious prisons. ‘We will not pardon those involved in torturing and eliminating prisoners and we will persecute them in our country,’ al-Sharaa said. He called on other countries to extradite all criminals who have fled so that they can be tried.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has urged Turkey and Israel not to jeopardise the peaceful transition in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. ‘If we want a peaceful Syria, its territorial integrity must not be called into question, and neighbours like the Turkish and Israeli governments, who assert security interests, must not jeopardise the process by their actions,’ Baerbock told a press briefing in Berlin. ‘Syria must not again become the plaything of foreign forces or powers,’ the German minister warned. Berlin wants to ‘promote positive developments in Syria in close cooperation with its partners and prevent negative influences’, she stressed.
The tomb of Hafez al-Assad is in the centre of his hometown of Qardaha, in northwestern Syria. Assad was in power from 1971 to 2000. He died in June 2000 at the age of 69. His son Bashar, who was 34 at the time, succeeded him. Bashar's brother Basil was the actual heir to the throne, but he was killed in a car accident. Photos and videos show how Syrian rebels set fire to parts of the mausoleum, and the former president's coffin, and then waved the Syrian flag. One of the pictures shows the destroyed coffin lying burnt out in front of the mausoleum. In another picture, a rebel smiles broadly at the camera while standing on the coffin. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed to news agency ‘AFP’ that the tomb was badly damaged after the arson attack. Last weekend, rebels also took down a statue of Hafez al-Assad in central Damascus.
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