Syria latest: US man found in Syria flown out of country; Russian troops seen in city

Thanks for joining us, that's all for our live coverage today. 

Before we go, here's what happened today in five bullet points:

• Syrians came out in their thousands - maybe even millions - to mark the first Friday prayers since the fall of Bashar al Assad; 
• Russian troops were filmed appearing to be en route to a Moscow-operated military base in Tartus; 
• Turkey announced it would open an embassy in Damascus after more than 10 years of no diplomatic ties; 
• Travis Timmerman, a US man found safe in Syria yesterday after months in captivity has been flown out of the country;
• Assad confided in almost no one about his plans to flee Syria as his reign collapsed - with aides, officials and even relatives deceived or kept in the dark, it was revealed. 

Earlier this week, US secretary of state Antony Blinken warned that the power vacuum left by the toppling of Bashar al Assad in Syria could lead to a resurgence of the so-called Islamic State terror group in the country.

Often called ISIS, ISIL, or the pejorative Daesh, Islamic State has spent the past few years trying to rebuild, aiming to emulate the height of its power from 2014-2017.

The militants were based in the Syrian city of Raqqa and the Iraqi city of Mosul, holding sway over a wide area in both countries.

The group originally took advantage of the civil war in Syria and took parts of the north of the country, where it enforced its extreme interpretation of Islamic law on the population. 

But the group collapsed in Iraq, where it once had a base only a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria after a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition.

Tens of thousands of IS fighters and their families captured during the five-year-long battle are now in prisons run by Kurdish authorities.

Other fighters have since sought refuge in the hinterlands of the two fractured countries, scattered in autonomous cells.

Their leadership is clandestine and its overall size is hard to quantify, but the UN estimates it at 10,000 in its heartlands.

The US National Counterterrorism Center has said the threat posed by IS and another militant group al Qaeda "is at a low point with the suppression of the most dangerous elements".

But it went on to warn half of IS's branches are now active in insurgencies across Africa and "may be poised for further expansion".

Although Islamic State was almost completely eradicated in Syria by the US in 2019, it still has some presence in parts of the country. 

The US Army has kept around 900 troops inside Syria to suppress any activity, with IS attacks becoming more frequent since 2023.

Most recently, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Russian concert hall in March - killing 143 people - and a suspect behind the plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Austria earlier this year vowed allegiance to the group's leader.

Since Assad's fall, the US and Israel has struck several chemical weapons compounds and other ammunition sites in order to stop such munitions falling into the hands of Islamist extremists that could lead an Islamic State revival. 

But it remains unclear whether the group could muster the strength that saw it rise to prominence in the previous decade.

If you want to read more about ISIS, our special correspondent Alex Crawford filed this report on their attempts to rebuild earlier this year, which you can read here. 

And out security and defence editor Deborah Haynes has also written up a story on experts warning the evolving crisis creates the potential for a new wave of terrorism to emerge.

Read that here. 

Hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people have taken to the streets across Syria to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime.

"Assad was like a zombie... at last we are free," said a man waving the rebel flag.

By Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent in Homs

We descended into the darkness, crunching over broken glass, down three flights of steep stairs.

I could make out some offices with my torch, and at the end of the corridor, a set of large metal gates.

We were following a rebel soldier beneath a complex built by Syria's internal security services in the heart of the city of Homs.

He took us towards the cells where an unknown number of prisoners were held, tortured, moved on to other prisons, or just murdered where they lay.

Read Ramsay's full eyewitness piece here.

Sources have told the Reuters news agency that Russia has suspended its grain exports to Syria following the fall of Bashar al Assad's regime and his subsequent flight to Moscow. 

Two vessels carrying Russian wheat for Syria did not reach their destinations, the sources said, while further deliveries have been halted because exporters are concerned by uncertainty over who will manage it when it arrives. 

"I think no one would dare supply wheat to Syria under the current circumstances," a Russian source said. 

Meanwhile, a Syrian source suggested the exports had been halted because of uncertainty over payments - but that Russia and the interim government were in talks regarding the issue.

By Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent in Homs

I could barely walk 10 paces without someone stopping me wanting to talk, to tell me about their happiness that this day has come, and their sadness for those they have lost.

"For over 50 years, nobody has been able to speak openly, now they just can't stop talking," Sky producer Jeehad Jneid quipped, as we walked through the crowds.

We had joined thousands upon thousands of people on the streets of Homs, Syria, making their way to the 'Clock Tower' - the main square where some of the first spontaneous demonstrations against Bashar al Assad began in 2011.

Men, women, and children swarmed into the square. The crowds were overseen by revolutionary fighters on rooftops, and at checkpoints nearby, fighters were checking that nobody was carrying weapons - no guns were allowed in.

Read Ramsay's full eyewitness piece here.

These are the latest images from Syria, where people are celebrating Bashar al Assad's downfall.

There's been a jubilant mood all week, but especially today after the first Friday prayers since rebels ousted the regime. 

Turkey will open an embassy in Syria shortly, after years of no diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Turkey's foreign minister said the embassy, in Damascus, would open tomorrow. 

Relations between the countries were severed in March 2012, due to the Syrian civil war, with Turkey staunchly opposed to Bashar al Assad's regime. 

In the intervening years, the country has taken in millions of Syrian refugees that were forced to flee.

There's still no sign of missing US journalist Austin Tice, but sources have told the Reuters news agency he escaped from a Damascus prison briefly in 2013, before being recaptured. 

The sources said early that year, they witnessed an American man, dressed in ragged clothing, dodging between houses in the streets of Damascus' upmarket Mazzeh neighbourhood.

He had been held captive for five months at that point. 

Tice was recaptured soon after his escape, one current and one former US official said - and they believe it is likely he was taken by forces who answered directly to Assad.

While this is the first time his 2013 escape has been reported, there is still no sign of him now, despite a massive manhunt for him.

His family told Sky News last week they were "incredibly hopeful" he could be returned safely to them amid the "chaos" following the fall of Bashar al Assad's regime.

Israeli troops continue to hold positions inside Syria, amid international calls for them to withdraw. 

Israel moved troops deeper into the disputed Golan Heights area soon after the fall of Bashar al Assad, while some witnesses said they had seen the IDF  tanks some 25km from Damascus earlier this week. 

The IDF shared these images, which it said showed its troops operating in the Syrian border area...