The toppling of Bashar Assad has raised tentative hopes that Syrians might live peacefully and as equals after a half century of authoritarian rule.

The first U.S. diplomats to visit Syria since President Bashar Assad’s ouster earlier this month are now in Damascus to hold talks with the country’s new leaders and seek information on the whereabouts of missing American journalist Austin Tice.

Top U.S. diplomats from the Biden administration are in Damascus on Friday to meet new Syrian authorities led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a State Department spokesperson said, the first in-person and official meeting between Washington and Syria's de-facto new rulers.

A journalists association says two reporters working for Kurdish media outlets have been killed in clashes between Syrian Kurdish militia and Turkish-backed fighters in northern Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia's military bases there.

A high-level US delegation traveled to Damascus Friday and sat down with Syria’s de-facto leader, a former Jihadist with a long-standing $10 million US bounty on his head who led the swift and successful rebellion against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria's new leader, a senior U.S. diplomat said Friday, following "positive messages" from a first meeting that included a promise