DAMASCUS: Rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa’s Islamist group is stamping its authority on Syria with the same lightning speed that it seized the country, deploying police, installing an interim government and meeting foreign envoys .
Sharaa’s HTS group’s bureaucrats who until last week were running an Islamist administration in Syria’s northwest have moved into government headquarters in Damascus. The appointment of Mohammed al-Bashir, the head of the regional government in HTS’ enclave of Idlib, as Syria’s new interim prime minister on Monday underlined the group’s status as the most powerful of the armed groups that battled for over 13 years to end Assad’s rule.