Security personnel in Tartous Province in western Syria, December 25, 2024 (Getty)

UPDATES: Syria’s al-Sharaa Hosts Turkey’s Foreign Minister in Damascus

UPDATE 2028 GMT:

A snapshot from western Syria….

Joshua Landis, the commentator on Syria who posted dangerous misinformation on Wednesday about an incident in an Alawite shrine (see Original Entry), posts a far different update:

UPDATE 1732 GMT:

Bethan McKernan of The Guardian posts the stories of the surviving detainees of the Assad regime’s torture, executions, and poor prison conditions.

Of all the horrors Mohammed Ammar Hamami remembers from his time in the Assad regime’s notorious Sednaya prison, the most vivid is the clanging of metal execution tables being moved around on the floor below.

About once every 40 days, prison guards would drag the tables away from under the feet of condemned men. Nooses around their necks and hands tied behind their backs, they would die by hanging. Most of the bodies were burned in Sednaya’s crematorium.

“This is the noise we used to hear,” the 31-year-old said, picking up the edge of one of the tables and letting the smash of metal on metal echo around the large room. “When we hear this noise, it means they are executing people….Imagine sitting upstairs and knowing prisoners are being executed downstairs.”

A week after he was freed, Hamami — thin from complications from diabetes, missing teeth from beatings, and suffering from three broken ribs — returned to Sednaya.

I wanted to revisualise the life we lived here. After I went out and breathed fresh air, now I can tell the difference….We were the living dead.

It was like I was reborn. Today I am not 31, I am seven days old.

UPDATE 1659 GMT:

Around 18,000 Syrians have returned from Jordan since the fall of the Assad regime, says Jordanian Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya.

The returnees included 2,300 refugees registered with the UN.

Around 1.3 million Syrians fled for Jordan since the start of Syria’s uprising in March 2011. About 650,000 formally registered with the UN.

UPDATE 1337 GMT:

In its first official message to the new Syrian Government, Lebanon says it is looking forward to the best neighborly relations.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to Syrian counterpart Asaad Hassan al-Shibani in a phone call.

An Iraqi delegation, led by intelligence chief Hamid al-Shatri, met officials of the new Syrian administration.

Syrian government spokesperson Bassem al-Awadi said the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border”.

UPDATE 1024 GMT:

Iran’s regime, an essential backer of Bashar al-Assad, is reeling from the economic shock of his downfall.

The rial has reached the historic low of 800,000:1 v. the US dollar in Tehran this morning.

The Iranian currency — which stood at 45,000:1 in early 2018 — has lost about 12% of its value since rebels swept through Syria in late November.

A senior figure in the Iranian regime is encouraging Syrian youth to rise up against the new government.

Mohsen Rezaei — a member of the Expediency Council and former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Secretary of the National Security Council, and Vice President — posted on social media:

The resilient youth and people of Syria will not remain silent in the face of foreign occupation, external aggression, and the internal authoritarianism of a single group. Within less than a year, they will revive resistance in Syria in a new form.

UPDATE 1017 GMT:

Ali Haj Suleiman of Al Jazeera English reports on the expansion of Israel’s occupation in Quneitra Province in southwest Syria.

Ibrahim al-Dakheel, 55, watched in despair as an Israeli bulldozer demolished his 40-year-old home, claiming it was necessary to secure borders.

“It was 6:30 a.m. when I heard the explosion,” he told Al Jazeera, pointing to the spot where a Syrian military post once stood near his destroyed house….

“I saw them moving through the village – trucks and tanks arrived at the town hall along with bulldozers.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Fourteen security personnel from Syria’s new government were killed in clashes with armed men in the west of the country on Wednesday.

The fighting began in Tartous Province when the personnnel tried to arrest an officer linked to the Assad regime’s Sednaya Prison, where tens of thousands of detainees perished from torture, executions, or poor conditions.

Interior Minister Mohammed Abdul Rahman confirmed the fatalities in a message on Telegram, adding that 10 police officers were wounded by “remnants” of the regime. The minister pledged punishment of anyone who would “undermine Syria’s security or endanger the lives of its citizens”.

Three of the armed men were reportedly killed.

In the city of Homs in central Syria, police imposed an overnight curfew after unrest. One demonstrator was killed and five others wounded when security forces opened fire to disperse the crowd. Agence France-Presse reported.

Some residents said the demonstrations were linked to pressure on the Alawite minority, of whom Bashar al-Assad and others in his regime were members.

Others said protests were sparked by video and misinformation about killings in an Alawite shrine.

Analysts and Authorities Debunk False Claims Over Shrine Killings

Video circulated on Wednesday of fire and smoke in the Mausoleum of al-Khasibi in Aleppo Province, with claims that five caretakers had been slain.

Al-Khasibi, born in Iraq, was the highest spiritual authority of the Alawites in the 10th century. The claims of the descretation of the shrine were spread by Joshua Landis of the University of Oklahoma and the Quincy Institute, a prominent commentator on the Syrian conflict. They were amplified by activists who promote Russian and Assad regime disinformation, such as former regime propagandist Vanessa Beeley, Aaron Maté of The Grayzone, and David Miller of Iran’s Press TV.

However, analysts soon pointed out that the video was from late November, when rebels swept through Aleppo Province. The dead men in the footage were not caretakers, but Assad regime fighters whose bodies were handed over to White Helmets civil defense processing and burial.

Local sources, including guards at the shrine, confirmed the information. The custodians of the shrine, Sheikh Ammar Mohammed and Sheikh Ahmed Bilal, issued a statement saying that they had reached out to community leaders and relevant authorities to ensure those responsible were held accountable. They emphasized that releasing the video now was an attempt to incite discord, and called on everyone to act with wisdom and restraint.

On Wednesday evening, the Interior Ministry reiterated that the video was from late November and that the groups in it are unidentified. It said security forces are working to protect properties and religious sites, and echoed the Sheikhs in saying circulation of the footage aimed to incite sectarian strife.