Israeli airstrike near Damascus kills 11, war monitor says [Video]

Portraits of missing people whose families say they were taken by the Assad regime are plastered across a monument in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024 (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)

By Kareem Chehayeb The Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s de facto leader said Sunday it could take up to four years to hold elections in Syria, and that he plans to dissolve his Islamist group that led the country’s insurgency at an anticipated national dialogue summit for the country.

Ahmad al-Sharaa, who leads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group leading the new authority in Syria, made the remarks in an interview with Saudi television network Al-Arabiyya. It comes almost a month after a lightning insurgency led by HTS overthrew President Bashar Assad’s decades-long rule, ending the country’s uprising-turned civil war that started back in 2011.

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