Syrian rebels appoint Mohd al-Bashir as interim PM

Will be the head of transitional govt till March 1; 40 tortured bodies found in Damascus morgue

THE rebels in Syria appointed a transitional head of government on Tuesday to run the country until March 1, a statement said.

"The general command has tasked us with running the transitional government until March 1," said a statement attributed to Mohammad al-Bashir on state television's Telegram account, referring to him as "the new Syrian prime minister".

Meanwhile the rebel fighters said they found around 40 bodies bearing signs of torture inside a hospital morgue near Damascus on Monday, stuffed into body bags with numbers and sometimes names written on them.

"I opened the door of the morgue with my own hands, it was a horrific sight: about 40 bodies were piled up showing signs of gruesome torture," Mohammed al-Hajj, a fighter with rebel factions from the country's south said by telephone from Damascus.