The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 16 security personnel were killed in the attack. Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Observatory, claimed that the gunmen responsible for the ambush were Alawites. “These are the worst clashes since the fall of the regime,” Abdurrahman stated.

The conflict poses a challenge for the new interim president as he tries to unify Syria and extend his authority over the entire country.

Under Mr Assad Syria sank from middle-income status to abject poverty. Women saw branches off trees for heating. Children scavenge in dumpsters for food. Men pull copper wire from buildings and telecoms cables to sell. The government is broke and banks are running out of cash. “The economy is tanking,” says one of Mr Sharaa’s advisers.

Three months after Syria’s 14-year-old civil war ended, and as the holy month of Ramadan begins, euphoria is being replaced by anger at the continuing atrophying of the economy and at the apparent inability of the new government to reverse it.

Among the uncertainties facing Syria is the future of U.S. involvement in the country. Since 2014, Washington has backed a de facto autonomous government in northeastern Syria formed principally, but not exclusively,

Syria's national dialogue, held in Damascus at the end of February, was intended to chart the country's future, one that would have been unthinkable just three months earlier. However, the process and outcomes of the dialogue were flawed,

AIPAC and AJC are taking a cautiously hopeful approach to the new government in Damascus, while Israel is growing increasingly alarmed by the regime

By bnm Gulf bureau Violent clashes broke out in Jaramana, a suburb near Damascus, between Syria’s new Turkish-backed administration security forces and local Druze militias on March 2. The Druze in Syria are a small but influential religious minority.

Syria received a new shipment of its local currency printed in Russia on Wednesday and more shipments were expected in the future, a Syrian government official said, in a new sign of improving ties between Moscow and Syria's new rulers.

Rebuilding Syria will take years and billions of dollars. The first step is stabilizing the economy and improving the living standards of Syria’s poorest.

PHUONG PHAM is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School.