DAMASCUS, Syria—The Syrian factions that toppled President Bashar Assad last month named an Islamist former rebel leader as the country‘s interim president on Wednesday in a push to project a united front as they face the monumental task of rebuilding Syria after nearly 14 years of civil war.
The former insurgents also threw out Syria’s constitution, adopted under Assad, saying a new charter would be drafted soon.
The appointment of Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was once aligned with the al-Qaeda terrorist group, as Syria’s president “in the transitional phase” came after a meeting of the former insurgent factions in Damascus, the Syrian capital.
The announcement was made by the spokesperson for Syria’s new, de facto government’s military operations sector, Col. Hassan Abdul Ghani, the state-run SANA news agency said. The exact mechanism under which the factions selected al-Sharra as interim president was not clear.
Formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa is the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, which led the lightning offensive that toppled Assad in early December. The group was once affiliated with al-Qaeda but has since denounced its former…
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