Airstrikes hit sites across Syria as global powers seek to shape its future

Bombing raids have hit sites across Syria as regional actors in the Middle East scrambled to defend their interests in the country after the sudden fall of its president, Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Moscow.

- Peter Beaumont

As rebels led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) freed regime prisoners, including from the notorious Sednaya jail - often referred to as the "human slaughterhouse" - Israel, Turkey and the US carried out military action as Assad's former backers in Russia and Iran also engaged in efforts to shape a future Syria.

With events moving at an often dizzying pace, the rebels who toppled Assad announced on Telegram that they were issuing a general amnesty for regime military conscripts, as the former Syrian prime minister Mohammed Jalali told Al Arabiya he had agreed to hand over power to the rebel "salvation government".

The US has struck targets associated with Islamic State in central Syria, while Turkey has attacked US-backed Kurdish forces. A deal for the Kurdish forces to withdraw from the northern city of Manbij was reportedly struck yesterday after an advance by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.

Israel also confirmed that it had sent forces into the buffer zone beyond the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and into former Syrian military positions on Mount Hermon in what it described as a "temporary measure". It said it would continue with airstrikes on former regime sites associated with missiles and chemical weapons, with strikes reported yesterday evening on an air defence installation near the port of Latakia.

The UN security council was due to meet last night to discuss the Syrian crisis in a closed session and at Russia's request. The strikes reflect the perilous path forward for Syria as it transitions from five decades of brutal rule by the Assad family.