Hastily abandoned documents show how the fallen government’s vast intelligence apparatus struggled to comprehend and stop the rapid rebel advance.

The new leadership of the country said the rebel coalition leader, Ahmed al-Shara, would serve as president during a transitional period.

Tulsi Gabbard is expected to face tough questions about her past comments about Russia, Syria and a key government surveillance program as lawmakers vet her to lead the nation’s intelligence service.

Mr Sharaa’s drive for integration is not unprecedented. Bosnia granted citizenship to hundreds of jihadists who fought for it in the 1990s. “Granting citizenship is not so new; the whole world does it,” says Obayda Amer Ghadban, another researcher of Syrian armed groups.

Assad’s final ouster appeared abrupt, it had its roots in Syria’s 2011 antigovernment protests, and Syrians will now face many of the same problems that beset other Arab countries after their Arab Spring revolutions.

A delegation of Russian officials is in Damascus, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. It is the first such visit to Syria since the fall in December of former President Bashar Assad, an ally of Moscow.

DAMASCUS: Tightening his hold on power less than two months after he led a campaign that toppled Bashar al-Assad, Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has been declared president for

Weeping, Fairuz Shalish grasps the red earth at an unmarked grave in Syria that she believes may hold her son, one of tens of thousands of people who vanished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.Thousands poured out of the country's web of prisons in the final days of Assad's rule and after Islamist-led rebels toppled him on December 8.

• Eight hostages – three Israeli and five Thai – are set to be released from Gaza on Thursday. The three Israelis are Arbel Yehoud, Agam Berger and Gadi Moses, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. The names of the five Thai citizens have not been made public.

Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ), a collective of journalists and OCCRP partner, found the documents in late December while combing through files left behind during the hasty collapse of the Assad regime earlier that month.