Syria latest: Prison boss charged with torture by US; fears chemical weapons may be smuggled abroad

US and Turkey meet over efforts to fight ISIS

Top diplomats from the US and Turkey have met to discuss efforts to quell Islamic State in Syria.

The nations have previously backed opposing groups in the north of Syria which fought each other as well as ISIS.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said: "Our countries worked very hard and gave a lot over many years to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS, to ensure that that threat doesn't rear its head again, and it's imperative that we keep at those efforts."

Blinken said there was broad agreement with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan on what Turkey and the US would like to see after Assad's downfall. 

For context: The US supports the Syrian Democratic Forces, formed by an alliance between the Kurdish-led Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and other groups to fight Islamic State in 2014.

Turkey, meanwhile, sees the YPG as inseparable from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey.

Ankara sent troops into Syria from 2016 to push Kurdish groups and Islamic State away from its borders, and continues to back groups fighting under the banner of the Syrian National Army.

Friday prayer to be held for first time since fall of Assad

Friday prayer will be held today for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, where approximately 90% are Muslim.

Sermons will be delivered to congregations with new liberties, now free to gather en masse and choose to express anti-Assad sentiment without fear of reprisal.

Al Majalla magazine published a report earlier this week showing Assad regime security documentation of previous prayers that tracked whether they were made for ousted leader Bashar al Assad and his army or not.

At Umayyad Mosque in the capital, Al Jazeera reports there is a celebratory mood, with people gathering since early this morning and expected to march towards the central square following the prayer.

What chemical weapons are regulators hunting in Syria?

The chemical weapons watchdog wants Syria's new leaders to grant access to identify perpetrators of attacks that killed and injured thousands during the civil war.

Nicole Shampaine, the US ambassador to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Assad's fall was an extraordinary chance to rid Syria of chemical weapons.

Here we outline some of the chemical weapons the OPCW is seeking.

Syria joined the OPCW in 2013 and 1,300 metric tonnes of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed by the international community. 

But after more than a decade of inspections, Syria still possesses banned munitions.

The UN and OPCW have documented 34 known uses of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war between 2013 and 2018.

A recent assessment said 19 issues remained, including "potentially undeclared full-scale development and production of chemical weapons at two declared chemical weapons-related facilities".

Assad-ruled Syria and its military ally Russia always denied using chemical weapons in the civil war, but the OPCW found the systematic use of chlorine barrel bombs has killed and injured hundreds.

More than 1,000 people were also killed in a sarin gas attack on 21 August 2013 in the Damascus suburb Ghouta.

And mustard gas (sulphur mustard) was used in the town of Marea, north of Aleppo, when Islamic State insurgents were battling another group on on 21 August 2015.

Chlorine causes air sacs in the lungs to secrete fluid, essentially drowning or choking its victims.

Sarin is a nerve agent belonging to chemical group called organo-phosphorus compounds, which block nerve impulses and are highly toxic with rapid effects.

This causes seizures, loss of body control and paralyses of the muscles, including the heart and diaphragm.

Mustard gas causes large blisters on the skin, windpipe and lungs, as well as burning to the eyes and mucous membranes.

Blair's bromance with Assad - who was even considered for knighthood

Bashar al Assad wasn't always condemned as a pariah by the UK government.

This week Sir Keir Starmer welcomed his fall, declaring Syrians had "put up with his brutal regime for far, far too long".

But it was a different story in the early days of Assad's regime, when Tony Blair made extraordinary efforts to court him.

He visited Syria, the president visited the UK and met the Queen and it was later reported that Assad was even considered for an honorary knighthood.

All this was because when he succeeded his father, Hafez al Assad, as president in 2000, Blair regarded him as a moderniser and reformer he could do business with.

And so, in diplomatic moves that would later have been unthinkable, Blair visited Damascus in 2001 and then welcomed him to Downing Street in 2002.

Relations between the UK and Syria were so cordial in those days that Assad was even given the honour of a meeting with the Queen during his visit to London.

Nerve gas victims say Assad should be punished for deadly attack on edge of Syrian capital

Warning: This story contains details readers may find distressing

Victims of one of Bashar al Assad's worst atrocities are demanding he's hauled back from Moscow and put on trial for gassing more than 1,400 of their relatives.

Assad's sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in 2013 was cold, calculating and nearly changed the whole way Britain and America handled his Syrian regime.

Now he has been toppled, there is an opportunity to bring the former president to justice, his victims hope.

Britain and America at first considered military action to punish Assad for the gassing in Ghouta and for similar attacks.

But cold feet on both sides of the Atlantic meant Assad got away with it and Barack Obama's infamous red line on Syria was not enforced.

You can arguably draw another line from that episode all the way to Putin's decision later to ignore Western threats over Ukraine.

Ghouta is less than 10 miles from Assad's presidential palace. He perpetrated one of this century's worst war crimes on the edges of his own capital.

Sarin is a nerve agent. It destroys the nervous system's ability to function. Victims cannot regulate their breathing, leading to asphyxiation.

It is a very nasty way to die. Its production and use has been banned worldwide since the 1990s.

Israeli troops to remain in Syria over winter

Israel's defence minister has ordered his troops to prepare to remain on Mount Hermon, a strategic location on the Lebanese-Syrian border overlooking Damascus, during winter.

"Due to what is happening in Syria - there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon," read a statement from Israel Katz's office.

Israeli troops have moved into the demilitarised zone inside Syria in what it calls the incursion a temporary measure to ensure border security. 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the collapse of Assad's government meant that no power was in place to enforce the agreement that created the zone following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and Israel would remain only until a suitable arrangement was found.

Critics have accused Israel of violating the ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land grab.

It remains unclear how far beyond the designated buffer zone its troops have stopped. 

Three security sources said on Tuesday the Israelis had advanced beyond the demilitarised zone. One Syrian source said they had reached the town of Qatana, several miles to the east of the zone and just a short drive from Damascus airport.

Former Syrian prison boss charged with torture in US

A former Syrian government official who headed the Damascus Central Prison from 2005 to 2008 has been charged with torture by a grand jury in Los Angeles, according to the US justice department.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh, 72, allegedly ordering subordinates to inflict severe physical and mental pain and suffering on political and other prisoners, the department said.

He has been accused of being personally involved in some such incidents.

The torture aimed to deter opposition to the regime of Bashar al Assad, the department said, adding that Alsheikh later allegedly lied about his crimes to obtain a US residence permit. 

Alsheikh, who allegedly held positions in the Syrian police and the state security apparatus, was associated with the ruling Syrian Ba'ath Party, and was appointed governor of the province of the city of Deir Ez Zour by Assad in 2011. 

The indictment has added three counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture to charges of visa fraud and attempted naturalisation fraud that were contained in an initial indictment against Alsheikh in August. 

The news comes after two former high-ranking Syrian intelligence officials under Assad were charged with war crimes in the US on Monday.

-SKY NEWS