51�Թ�

“Mine was the first house they entered. They lined us up — me, my wife, and four kids — against the wall, a soldier for each of us with his machine gun raised,” said Thyab, recounting that night in December when Israeli troops, following the lightning-fast collapse of President Bashar Assad’s regime, stormed into Rasm Al-Rawadhy and other villages on Syria’s western edge.

Last week, troops advanced near the city of Tasil, some 8 miles beyond the armistice line and the deepest they’ve reached into Syria since the collapse of the Assad government.

During the civil war between Assad and the rebels, the area was taken over by Al Qaeda-linked groups and then the extremists of Islamic State before they were dislodged by the Syrian army and its Iran-backed militiamen.

During the Assad regime, such panels were used to hide crimes committed by the security forces.

To subdue what al-Sharaa says was an attempted coup by Assad loyalists, he rallied not only his fighters in the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham but dozens of other factions, including hard-line militant groups with variable loyalty to the country’s new leaders.