Rebel-backed figure takes charge as Syria's interim prime minister

Syria's new interim leader announced on Tuesday he was taking charge of the country as caretaker prime minister with the backing of the former rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad three days ago.

In a brief address on state television, Mohammed al-Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria who previously ran an administration in a small pocket of the northwest controlled by rebels, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1.

"Today we held a cabinet meeting that included a team from the Salvation government that was working in Idlib and its vicinity, and the government of the ousted regime," he said.

"The meeting was under the headline of transferring the files and institutions to caretake the government."

Behind him were two flags: the green, black and white flag flown by opponents of Assad throughout the civil war, and a white flag with the Islamic oath of faith in black writing.

In the Syrian capital, banks reopened for the first time since Assad's overthrow. Shops were also reopening, traffic returned to the roads, construction workers were back fixing a roundabout in the Damascus city centre and street cleaners were out sweeping the streets.

There was a notable decrease in the number of armed men on the streets. Two sources close to the rebels said their command had ordered fighters to withdraw from cities, and for police and internal security forces affiliated with the main rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS) to deploy there.

The steps towards normalisation came despite intense airstrikes from Israel targeting bases of the Syrian army, whose forces had melted away in the face of the lightning rebel advance that ousted Assad.

Israel, which has sent forces across the border into a demilitarised zone inside Syria, acknowledged on Tuesday that troops had also taken up some positions beyond the buffer zone, though it denied they were advancing towards Damascus. It mounted airstrikes on bases of the now dissolved Syrian army.

In a sign foreigners are ready to work with HTS, the former al Qaeda affiliate that led the anti-Assad revolt and has lately emphasised its break with its radical roots, the UN envoy to Syria played down its designation as a terrorist organisation.

"The reality is so far that HTS and also the other armed groups have been sending good messages to the Syrian people ... of unity, of inclusiveness," Geir Pedersen told a briefing in Geneva.

The new interim Syrian leader has little political profile beyond Idlib province, the small, largely rural region of the northwest where rebels had maintained an administration during the long years that Syria's civil war front lines were frozen.

A Facebook page of the rebel administration says he was trained as an electrical engineer, later received a degree in sharia and law, and had held various posts over areas including education.

Israel's incursion in the southwest and its airstrikes on bases of the defeated army create an additional security problem for the new administration, although Israel insists its intervention is temporary.

After Assad's flight on Sunday ended more than five decades of his family's rule, Israeli troops moved into the buffer zone inside Syria established following the 1973 Middle East war.

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 km (miles) to the east of the buffer zone and a short drive from Damascus airport.

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered a "sterile defensive zone" to be created in southern Syria to protect Israel.

Military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said troops were in the buffer zone and "a few additional points" in the vicinity, the first apparent official Israeli acknowledgement that they had moved beyond it. He said, however, that there had been no significant push into Syria.

"We are not involved in what's happening in Syria internally, we are not a side in this conflict and we do not have any interest other than protecting our borders and the security of our citizens," Shoshani said.

Katz also said Israel's navy had destroyed Syria's fleet.

Regional security sources and officers within the defunct Syrian army described Tuesday morning's Israeli air strikes as the heaviest yet, hitting military installations and air bases across Syria and destroying dozens of helicopters and jets.

Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned the Israeli incursion.

Rebuilding Syria will be a colossal task following 13 years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Cities have been bombed to ruin, swathes of countryside are depopulated, the rump economy has been gutted by international sanctions and millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the biggest displacements of modern times.

But the mood in Damascus remained celebratory, with refugees beginning to return to a homeland they had not seen in years. Anas Idrees, 42, a refugee since early in the war, raced from Lebanon to Syria to cheer the fall of the Assad regime.

After making arrangements for his family to follow, he ventured into the grand Hamidiyeh Souk in old Damascus to the renowned Bakdash ice cream parlour, where he ordered a large scoop of their signature mastic-infused Arabic gelato.

A generous heap costs $1 per bowl, served coated in pistachios.

"I swear to God, it tastes different now," he said after eating a spoonful. "It was good before, but it's changed because now we are happy inside."

The shop's regular customers agreed that something felt new.

"It tastes different – it's delicious and has gotten even better," said Eman Ghazal, a business student in her 20s. "It's not just the ice cream, it's life in general. It's as if the walls are smiling and the sun has finally come out."