Syria Latest: Commander warns ISIS coming out of hiding; rebels claim to find illegal drugs warehouse in Assad airbase

Families search for bodies of loved ones

Our special programme live now from Damascus has kicked off and our chief correspondent Stuart Ramsaybrings a report from a hospital in Damascus as families search for those who have disappeared.

He says the dead at the hospital "are all victims of Bashar al Assad's regime".

"Across Damascus there is a desperate search for the missing but there is no authority," Ramsay says.

"So families are searching the morgues themselves and opening body bags and taking pictures of the victims.

"Trying to work out if they are victims."

Tune in to Sky News special programme live now from Damascus

Watch a special programme live now from outside the presidential palace in Damascus on Sky News, hosted by Yalda Hakim. 

Our correspondents Dominic Waghorn, Stuart Ramsay and Alex Rossi will report from the ground in Syria, with Alistair Bunkall in the Golan Heights and Ivor Bennett in Moscow.

The hour-long special will look at how and why Syria fell so quickly, the concerns about the threat from Islamic State and what happens next.

It will also reveal evidence of Bashar al Assad's brutality and excess, which was hidden from the world for so long.

Blinken arrives in Jordan for Syria talks

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has arrived in Jordan for talks on Syria.

Mr Blinken, who met Jordan's King Abdullah in the Red Sea town of Aqaba as he arrived, this week set out Washington's hopes for Syria's political transition.

This included recognising a future Syrian government that amounts to a credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governing body.

He has also called for an "inclusive" process to form Syria's next government that includes protections for minorities.

While in the country, Mr Blinken will discuss US priorities of ensuring Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles are secured and destroyed and facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid.

He will also express the importance of the country not being used as a "base of terrorism".

Mr Blinken will head to Turkey later on today.

G7 'stands ready to support transition process' in Syria

Leaders of the G7 major democracies have said they "stand ready to support a transition process that leads to credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance" in Syria.

The G7 said a political transition after the end of Bashar al Assad's rule had to ensure "respect for the rule of law, universal human rights, including women's rights, the protection of all Syrians, including religious and ethnic minorities, transparency and accountability".

A statement reads: "The G7 will work with and fully support a future Syrian government that abides by those standards and results from that process."

The leaders also called on "all parties" to "preserve Syria's territorial integrity and national unity, and respect its independence and sovereignty".

But Abu Mohammad al Jolani, the head of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) who now asks to be called by his birth name Ahmed al Sharaa, told Sky News his group doesn't seek further conflict and will bring stability back to Syria.

The HTS leader is a former member of Islamic State of Iraq and led al Qaeda's affiliate group in Syria before severing ties in 2016.

He is now trying to present himself as a more moderate Islamist leader but his group is designated by the UN, US, UK and other countries as a terrorist organisation.

Missing American man found in Syria

A missing American man has been found in Syria, our partner network NBC reports.

The man, who identified himself as an American named Travis from Missouri, told NBC he was a  "pilgrim" who was detained earlier this year after crossing into the country on foot.

He said he had been imprisoned but had been treated well. 

He declined to provide his last name and said he was not a journalist.

The American appeared in videos circulating online in which rebels said they had located him and were keeping him safe.

The man was located in the town of Dhiyabia, just outside the Syrian capital Damascus, by NBC News' foreign correspondent Matt Bradley and found surrounded by reporters while sitting up on a bed in a room.

He explained he had "been reading the scripture a lot" before deciding to cross the mountains from Lebanon into Syria. 

The man explained he had been in Europe prior to going on his pilgrimage and travelling from Lebanon into Syria in late May, but was spotted by a border guard and detained. 

Inside the fall of Assad

Sky News' Yalda Hakim and NBC's Richard Engel meet in rebel-held Damascus for the latest episode of The World podcast.   

With gunfire echoing across the Syrian capital, they ask what the future holds for the country after his family's 50-year reign of terror. 

Turkey-backed forces 'advancing in northern Syria'

Turkey-backed rebel forces are continuing their advance to "clear terrorism" in northern Syria, a Turkish defence ministry source has told Reuters, referring to the battle against a Kurdish militia in the region. 

The source also said Turkey had been telling the US repeatedly that "a terrorist organisation cannot be eliminated by using another terrorist organisation" - referring to Washington's support for the Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against Islamic State. 

The SDF is supported by Kurdish militia - regarded by Turkey regards a terrorist group.

The history of the disputed Golan Heights

Benjamin Netanyahu has defended Israel's seizure of the Syrian side of Golan Heights (see previous post).

The Golan Heights were part of Syria until 1967, when Israel captured most of the area during the Six Day War, before occupying it fully, annexing it and applying Israeli law to the area in 1981.

That unilateral annexation was not recognised internationally, and Syria demands the return of the territory.

Syria tried to regain the Heights in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, but was repelled.

Israel and Syria signed an armistice in 1974.

In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks over a possible return of the Golan and a peace agreement, but the negotiations collapsed and subsequent talks also failed.

In 2019, the then US president Donald Trump officially recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights - a move condemned by Syria.

United Nations peacekeepers have been in the Golan Heights since 1974 supervising a ceasefire between Israel and Syria.

Between Israel and Syria is a 155sq mile (400sq km) "Area of Separation" - often called a demilitarised zone - in which the two countries' military forces are not permitted under the truce.

Netanyahu defends Israel's seizure of Golan Heights

Benjamin Netanyahu has defended Israel's seizure of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights and said forces will remain in a UN-patrolled buffer zone until a new force on the other side of the border can guarantee security.

After the overthrow of Bashar al Assad, Israeli forces pushed into a buffer zone that had been established after the 1973 Yom Kippur war. 

The Israeli prime minister said deployment was temporary "until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed". 

"Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with 7 October style attacks," a statement read.

"That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel's border."

-SKY NEWS