As his enemies closed in on Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, who ruled over Syria with an iron fist for 24 years, used a private jet to spirit away cash, valuables and confidential documents mapping the corporate web behind his wealth.

Yasar Ibrahim, the president's top economic adviser, arranged the leasing of the plane to transport Assad's treasured assets, relatives, aides and presidential palace personnel to the United Arab Emirates aboard four flights, according to an account of the operation pieced together by Reuters from more than a dozen sources.

International alarm is growing over fighting in western Syria, where hundreds of civilians have been reportedly killed amid intense clashes between the country’s new government and loyalists to the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad. Pro-government forces have been accused of killing scores of residents in revenge massacres.

Syria is experiencing its deadliest period since the ousting of longtime President Bashar al-Assad three months ago, as clashes have erupted between government forces and pro-al Assad fighters this week, leaving hundreds of civilians and fighters dead. Since Thursday, more than 1,000 people—including Christian minorities and Alawites, the sect to which Assad belongs—have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and local reports.

The al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces who took over Damascus in December killed hundreds of Syrian civilians over the last two days, targeting Alawites and Christians. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on March 7 that 240 people had been killed in two days of violence in the coastal region of western Syria, which is heavily populated by members of the Alawite minority. The victims massacred include many children and women.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's warning of a terrorist takeover in Syria looks to be coming true amid reports that al Qaeda-linked terror forces aligned with Syria’s interim new president—a former al Qaeda terrorist—are being accused of massacring Alawites as well as members of the country's dwindling Christian community.

The US has said it will remove a $10mn bounty for Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that spearheaded the overthrow of Syria’s Assad regime, in a sign that Washington is willing to engage with the country’s new leadership. In exchange, Jolani, who now goes by his birth name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, agreed that terrorist groups could not be allowed “to pose a threat inside of Syria or externally, including to the US and our partners in the region”, Barbara Leaf, the State Department’s top Middle East official, said on Friday.

Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for 24 years before getting his comeuppance, received silent support from one of the unlikeliest places during his dictatorial rule. Numerous groups in Turkey’s splintered Left, from self-professed Maoists to Stalin apologists and various “Kemalist revolutionary” sects, have pledged alliance to the leader of the Syrian Ba’ath Party since the war started in 2011. The love affair has been costly for Turkey’s secular progressives, the very people the Leftists claim to represent.

Officials in the Biden administration are taking credit for creating conditions in Syria that enabled opposition forces to overthrow the Syrian government.

The former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has said he had no plans to flee Syria before being evacuated by the Russian army after its base in western Syria came under attack.

In his first comments since the fall of his brutal regime, Assad said he had planned to keep fighting rebel forces.