Blinken had been expected to remain in Italy through the weekend to join President Joe Biden but the outgoing US leader scrapped his trip, which was to include an audience with Pope Francis, to address wildfires sweeping Los Angeles.

"Operation Many Ways" sought to destroy the underground facility that mostly supplied Hezbollah in Lebanon

In a wide-ranging interview three weeks after his Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied rebels ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad from power after a lightning offensive, Sharaa also said that local Kurdish-led forces which Turkey opposes should be integrated into the national army.

The meeting between the rebel groups and Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa "ended in an agreement on the dissolution of all the groups and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence", said a statement carried by the SANA news agency and the authorities' Telegram account.

It is the first formal US diplomatic mission to Damascus since the early days of the brutal civil war that broke out in 2011 and culminated in a surprise lightning offensive that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad this month.

The "prisoner's" true identity as a notorious torturer and extortionist was first established during an investigation by Verify-Sy, an independent Syrian news organization.

Turkey and Qatar, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, have reopened embassies in Damascus, while US and British officials have launched communications with Syria's new leaders.

In October 2023, Ward came under fire after CNN admitted her report showing rockets falling on Israel was fabricated and inaccurate.

As Islamist-led rebel forces swept Syrian president Bashar al-Assad out of power last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered troops to seize the demilitarised zone between the two countries' forces on the Golan Heights.

An Syrian military official who fled to the United States was charged in California with multiple counts of torture, specifically for using a device called the "flying carpet" to inflict pain on prisoners.

The top US diplomat also said he saw "encouraging signs" on reaching a ceasefire in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Israel seized the demilitarised zone on the strategic plateau on Sunday, just hours after Syrian rebels swept president Bashar al-Assad from power.

The priests have received numerous offers to be extracted from the war-torn country but will spend Christmas in Aleppo.

Syrian rebels appear to be using YouTube tutorials to operate a helicopter captured from the Assad regime.

Assad fled Syria as an Islamist-led rebel alliance swept into the capital Damascus, bringing to an end on Sunday to five decades of brutal rule by his clan.

Assad fled to Russia on Sunday after a lightning offensive spearheaded by Islamist rebels ousted him from power, opening a new chapter in Syria's history after five decades of rule by his clan.

Rebels and civilians flooded Bashar al-Assad's abandoned presidential palaces after his regime's collapse, looting valuables and discovering private photos.

As Syrian rebels celebrated the overthrow of Assad, experts warn the coalition's leading group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, seeks to impose a strict Islamist regime.

Jubilant scenes erupted in Damascus as Syrian rebels declared victory over President Bashar al-Assad's regime, ending a brutal 13-year civil war.

The Islamist-led rebels were at the gates of Syria's Homs, a war monitor said, after wresting other key cities from government control.

The fighting around Hama follows a rapid offensive by the rebels, who in just days captured large chunks of territory, including Syria's second city Aleppo, from President Bashar al-Assad's control.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is backed by Russia and Iran, both of which have confirmed they will help his army fight back after Aleppo, the country's second city, fell out of government control.

The violence has killed 242 people, according to a Syrian war monitor, most of them combatants on both sides but also including civilians, including 24 dead, most of them in Russian air strikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions launched a surprise attack on the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday.

Syria, the Huthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the so-called axis of resistance led by Iran, which on October 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel.

Pakistan said Wednesday that Iran carried out an air strike on its territory that killed two children, after Tehran launched attacks in Iraq and Syria against what it called "anti-Iranian terrorist groups".

International warrants were also issued for the arrests of Assad's brother Maher, the de-facto chief of a Syrian elite military unit, and two armed forces generals.

It is the second time in roughly two weeks that the United States has targeted a location in Syria it said was tied to Iran, which supports an array of groups that Washington blames for a spike in attacks on its forces in the Middle East.

Turkey's parliament on Tuesday extended the military's authorisation to launch cross-border operations in neighbouring Syria and Iraq by two more years.

US warplanes on Thursday shot down a Turkish drone that was deemed a threat to American forces in Syria, the Pentagon said, an incident likely to raise tensions between the NATO allies.