Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed Wednesday morning the presence of former Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad on Russian soil, validating widespread speculation that President Vladimir Putin had granted political asylum to the Syrian dictator.

After ruling his country for nearly a quarter century, Assad has now joined the millions of refugees who fled Syria during its civil war, officially going into exile. But for those of us accustomed to the Syrian ruler over the years, and perhaps feeling sympathy for the tall, lanky eye doctor, the following details might change that perspective.

Russian media outlets recently reported extensively on the Assad family's assets within the Russian Federation, with their astronomical value revealing the incredible scale of the Assad regime's plunder from its citizens. According to reports, President Assad owns 18 luxury apartments in the prestigious City Capitals project, while other family members hold an additional 20 luxury units in the development. Together, the family controls substantial portions of two skyscrapers in central Moscow's financial district.

It remains unclear whether Assad plans to house family members who fled Syria's dire circumstances in these numerous apartments or intends to rent them for substantial income. Additional reports indicate Assad owns other global assets worth at least $2 billion.

Western media outlets have suggested Assad plans to retire from political life and return to his work as an ophthalmologist at hospitals in Russia and the United Arab Emirates. While the accuracy of these reports remains uncertain, given the estimated wealth the ruler has positioned outside Syria's borders, he likely won't need to work a single day for the rest of his life.

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Following blasts in Damascus on Wednesday that killed at least 14 Iranian officers, another 10 people – including four children and a woman – were killed by government shelling of a town in the last rebel enclave in the country's northwest on Wednesday afternoon.

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UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Cutts described as "shocking" the reports of the shelling that hit a market and roads near schools as students were heading to classes.

In addition to the four children killed, their teacher also died, according to UNICEF, the UN children's agency.

"Today's violence is yet another reminder that the war in Syria has not come to an end. Civilians, among them many children, keep bearing the brunt of a brutal decade-long conflict," the agency said. "Attacks on civilians including children are a violation of international humanitarian law."

The attack was one of the most violent in the area since a March 2020 truce in the northwest negotiated by Turkey and Russia – allies of the opposition and Syrian government, respectively. The truce has been repeatedly violated, and government forces often vow to take territories still out of their control.

In the central city of Hama, meanwhile, an explosion at an arms depot left six pro-government fighters dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor. The pro-government Sham FM radio station also reported that six fighters were killed in a depot explosion but did not give a location.

While fighting still rages in the northwest, Assad's forces now control much of Syria after military support from his allies Russia and Iran helped tip the balance of power in his favor. US and Turkish troops, meanwhile, are deployed in part's of the country's north.

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Madhat al-Saleh, who was killed in Quneitra on Saturday night while on his way home in an action that foreign media outlets attributed to Israel, will be laid to rest in Syria, and most likely buried near his home in the village of Ein Tina, social media in Lebanon and Druze media outlets operating in the Syrian Golan Heights were reported late Tuesday.

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The reports also said that al-Saleh's family, most of whom live in Majdal Shams – a village on the southern foothills of Mount Hermon on the Israeli Golan – will hold a memorial service for him there.

Media outlets in Arab countries, as well as Syrian and Lebanese media, provided little coverage of the targeted killing, but various reports out of Lebanon and from Syrian intelligence services in Damascus assessed that al-Saleh, who had been under Israeli surveillance, was targeted by an elite IDF unit that had penetrated deep into Syrian territory adjacent to Majdal Shams and then split into three teams of snipers. Once in position, the reports said, the snipers waited for al-Saleh, who was driving home to his village in Quneitra. When his car approached the sniper ambush, the snipers reported fired at him from a distance of about 200 meters (approximately 650 feet). The first bullet hit al-Saleh in the lower back and the second, fatal, bullet hit him in the chest. He died on the scene.

According to Lebanese sources, after determining that al-Saleh was dead, the snipers left their posts and returned to Israel, taking care to remove any signs of their presence.

Social media accounts of Lebanese officials involved in the event quoted various officials from the Golan Druze, who said that al-Saleh knew that his cooperation with Tehran and members of Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Syrian Golan, who are working to establish terrorist infrastructure to attack Israel, could turn out to be a double-edged sword.

The Damascus regime did not care for, to say the least, al-Saleh's involvement in attempts by Hezbollah and pro-Iranian militias in southern Syria to build terrorist infrastructure and attack Israel. As the Assad regime attempts to stabilize its control of southern Syria after the country's bloody years-long war, Damascus wants to keep the Syrian-Israeli border stable and quiet. In addition to al-Saleh being out of favor with the Assad regime, sources in Majdal Shams said that he was deep in debt after the war stopped apple exports by Druze farmers in the Syrian Golan.

While a member of Syria's parliament and the official representative of the Druze people in the Syrian government, al-Saleh held the Golan Heights portfolio. Over the years, he garnered massive benefits from the export of apples grown on the Syrian Golan. When the border crossings with Israel were closed, he suffered heavy financial losses, which led to complications with his ties with Syrian government officials as well as Syrian intelligence officials in southern Syria and earned him several enemies.

A resident of a Druze village in the Golan who is close to al-Saleh's family in Majdal Shams spoke to Israel Hayom and said, "Al-Saleh's fall began back in 2005. President Assad, who was close to him, distanced himself and he was also thrown out of parliament."

According to the Druze source, "Al-Saleh made a lot of money but the civil war stopped everything all of a sudden and he was in debt, and apparently that caused him to form ties with Iran. He apparently thought that the Iranians would put him back in positions of influence in Damascus and would line his pockets with money, and to all that you have to add his hatred for Israel.

"I don't think that anyone in Damascus is weeping over the assassination of Madhat al-Saleh," the source said.

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In an unsurprising result, Syrian President Bashar Assad won reelection this week with 95.1% of the vote, despite the bloody civil war that broke out, in which the Assad regime committed war crimes against its own citizens.

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The 95.1% of the vote comprises 13,540,000 ballots cast.

Voting did not take place in areas controlled by rebels or Kurdish-led troops. At least 8 million, mostly displaced, live in those areas in northwest and northeast Syria. Over 5 million refugees – mostly living in neighboring countries – largely refrained from casting their ballots.

US and European officials have questioned the legitimacy of the election, saying it violates UN resolutions in place to resolve the conflict, lacks any international monitoring, and is unrepresentative of all Syrians.

Assad faced symbolic competition from two candidates – Abdullah Salloum Abdullah and Mahmoud Marie, a former minister and a former opposition figure.

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A COVID-19 vaccine campaign kicked off in Syria's last rebel-held enclave on Saturday, with a 45-year-old front-line nurse becoming the first to receive a UN-secured jab.

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Nizar Fattouh, a nurse in Ibn Sina Hospital in Idlib city, received one of 53,800 AstraZeneca vaccines delivered to northwest Syria through Turkey on April 21.

The vaccines come amid a new surge of infections in the war-torn country. Syria's supplies of oxygen are depleted and its hospitals were already overwhelmed from 10 years of conflict and deteriorating health care services.

The AstraZeneca vaccines were delivered to the rebel-controlled area through a border crossing with Turkey, the northwestern territory's only gateway to the outside world.

Idlib health official Yasser Najib said the jabs were provided through the UN-led COVAX program for the world's poor and developing nations.

He said the vaccination campaign will last 21 working days, starting Saturday in two of the enclave's largest hospitals. On Monday, the campaign will unfold in other health centers, Najib said.

He said the small quantity of doses means prioritizing health care workers and aid personnel who are on the front line of the battle against the coronavirus. Infections among health care workers in the enclave have been high, accounting for as much as 30% of confirmed cases at one point.

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There are over 21,000 confirmed infections in rebel-held Idlib province, home to 4 million people, most of them displaced from different parts of Syria by the conflict. At least 641 have died in the area from COVID-19 related complications. Conflict has subsided in the area, but outbreaks of violence are still reported.

Syria has been divided by the war so vaccinations in government-controlled areas, nearly 60% of the country's territory, take place separately.

The Syrian government has secured 200,000 vaccines through the UN-led program but also has obtained doses from China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. A limited inoculation campaign had also begun in government-controlled areas that are experiencing increased pressure on hospitals.

In the Kurdish-controlled northeast, authorities announced this week they will extend a partial lockdown amid a surge in infections. The one-week extension comes as an international aid group warned of oxygen shortages in the region.

Northeastern Syria, administered by a Kurdish-led authority, doesn't have a separate inoculation program and is dependent on Damascus for testing for the virus and for vaccinations. The local health department reported 123 new cases and 14 deaths in the region, which is home to nearly 4 million people and borders Turkey and Iraq. The new cases raise to nearly 15,800 the total registered coronavirus cases in the region, including 571 deaths.

The World Health Organization has said the vaccination campaign in Syria aims to inoculate 20% of the total population residing in the country by the end of the year.

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Syria is a "living nightmare" where about half the children have never lived a day without war and 60% of Syrians are at risk of going hungry, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the conflict.

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"It is impossible to fully fathom the extent of the devastation in Syria, but its people have endured some of the greatest crimes the world has witnessed this century. The scale of the atrocities shocks the conscience," Guterres said.

"Syria has fallen off the front page. And yet, the situation remains a living nightmare," he told reporters.

A crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 led to civil war, with Moscow backing Assad and Washington supporting the opposition. Millions of people have fled Syria and millions are internally displaced.

"More humanitarian access is needed," Guterres told reporters on Wednesday. "Intensified cross-line and cross-border deliveries are essential to reach everyone in need everywhere. This is why I have repeatedly urged the Security Council to achieve consensus on this crucial matter."

The 15-member Security Council first authorized a cross-border aid operation into Syria in 2014 at four points. Last year, it reduced that access to one crossing point from Turkey due to opposition from Russia and China over renewing all four.

The council is due to address the issue of cross-border aid again in July.

Throughout the past decade, the Security Council has been divided over how to handle Syria, with Syrian ally Russia and China pitted against Western members. Russia has vetoed 16 council resolutions related to Syria and was backed by China for many of those votes.

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Manaf Tlass, a former brigadier general in the Syrian Republican Guard and member of Syrian President Bashar Assad's inner circle, has made an unusual visit to Moscow, media outlets identified with the Syrian opposition reported Wednesday.

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Some of the reports said that the visit was part of Moscow's wider-ranging efforts to end the Syrian war through a political compromise that all sides in the conflict can accept.

Tlass reportedly met with senior Russian officials including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Tlass is viewed as having the support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Ergodan and could theoretically author a cease-fire agreement that would be supported by the Turkey-backed militias that control northern Syria.

The Russian media reports also said that Russia was in contact with representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the umbrella organization of Kurdish militias operating in north-east Syria. The unaffiliated Syrian news site El-Dorar Al-Shamia reported efforts to establish a "military council" that would control Syria until a new civilian government could be elected that would represent most of the various factions in the country.

Such a move would likely be met with opposition from Assad and his people, who want the current regime to remain in place. It is possible that the latest reported gambit is an attempt to pressure Assad into throwing off Iran's influence and proposing his own reforms.

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A ministry statement, published on state media, did not name the firm involved in the deal with the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance that seized swathes of north and east Syria from the Islamic State with US help.

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The statement did not give details on the agreement. There was no immediate response from SDF officials to a Reuters' request for comment. There was no immediate comment from US officials.

Damascus "condemns in the strongest terms the agreement signed between al-Qasd militia (SDF) and an American oil company to steal Syria's oil under the sponsorship and support of the American administration," the statement said.

"This agreement is null and void and has no legal basis," it said, adding that it was a violation of Syrian sovereignty.

Syria produced around 380,000 barrels of oil per day before a civil war erupted following a crackdown on protests in 2011, with Iran and Russia backing President Bashar al-Assad's government and the United States supporting the opposition.

Damascus lost control of most oil-producing fields in a stretch east of the Euphrates River in Deir al-Zor. Western sanctions have also hit the energy industry.

US President Donald Trump has said that despite a military pullback from northeast Syria, a small number of American forces would remain "where they have oil." The Pentagon said late last year that oilfield revenues would go to the SDF.

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Turkey pounded Kurdish militia in northeast Syria for a second day on Thursday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee, killing dozens and drawing international condemnation.

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Those militias have been holding thousands of Islamic State militants in prisons and tens of thousands of their relatives in camps in the region. One senior Kurdish official warned the fighters could break out as the violence intensifies.

"If Daesh [Islamic State] camps or prisons are in the safe zone, we are responsible," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told a rare briefing with international media.

Turkey would ask the home countries of foreign Islamic State prisoners in its zone to take them back. If the foreign countries refuse – as many have – "it is our responsibility that they [the Islamic State prisoners] are held accountable and not released," he said.

Turkey would not be responsible for Islamic State prisoners held in other parts of Syria, he added.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan defended Turkey's operation in a fiery speech on Thursday, dismissing global criticism and threatening to send more than three million Syrian refugees into Europe.

He also reiterated a plan to settle millions of Syrian refugees in the "safe zone" in northeastern Syria, saying Turkey aimed to realize this with international funding.

The EU has said it will not provide any financial aid to Turkey for the plans. But Çavuşoğlu said that if the bloc refuses to provide assistance, refugees will "be their problem too."

"This is not blackmail or anything," Çavuşoğlu said. "This is the common challenge that our societies have been facing."

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This would be Turkey's third such incursion since 2016. Motivated largely by the aim of containing Syrian Kurdish power, Turkey already has troops on the ground across an arc of northwestern Syria, the last stronghold of anti-Damascus rebels.

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What does Turkey want?

Turkey has two main goals in northeast Syria: to drive the Kurdish YPG militia which it deems a security threat away from its border, and to create a space inside Syria where 2 million Syrian refugees currently hosted in Turkey can be settled.

It had been pushing the United States to jointly establish a "safe zone" extending 20 miles (32 km) into Syrian territory, but repeatedly warned it could take unilateral military action after accusing Washington of dragging its feet.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has recently talked about pushing even deeper into Syria, beyond the proposed "safe zone" region to the cities of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, in order to allow still more refugees to return to Syria.

How will the Kurds be affected?

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have spent years expanding its control across northern and eastern Syria, helped by the US-led coalition against Islamic State.

A rare case of a winner in the Syrian war, the Kurds and their allies have set up their own governing bodies while always insisting their aim is autonomy, not independence.

All of this could unravel in the event of a major Turkish invasion that would plunge the area into warfare. The SDF-affiliated Syrian Democratic Council said an attack would trigger a new wave of mass displacement.

For the SDF alliance, in which the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia is the dominant force, much will depend on whether the United States continues to keep forces in other parts of the northeast and east. A full US withdrawal would expose the area to the risk of more Turkish advances, an Islamic State revival, or attempts by Iranian- and Russian-backed government forces to gain ground.

Confronted by the prospect of US withdrawal last year, the Kurds beat a path to Damascus for talks over allowing the Syrian government and its ally Russia to deploy at the border.

The talks made no progress, but such negotiations could be an option again in the event of a wider US withdrawal.

How far could Turkey go?

The northeastern border region, currently controlled by Kurdish-led forces, stretches 480 km (300 miles) from the Euphrates river in the west to the Iraq border to the east.

The immediate focus of Turkey's military plans appears to be around a section of the border between the towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad, which are about 100 km (62 miles) apart. A US official told Reuters on Monday US forces had withdrawn from observation posts there.

Although under the control of Kurdish-led forces, that part of the border has historically had a strong Arab presence.

"It's a region where the population is Arab and where Turkey has good ties with the leading groups," said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli of the German Marshall Fund. If the YPG tries to hold territory there "it will lose a lot of blood," he said.

Turkey has not spelled out the scope or the initial focus of its planned operation. "The location, time and scope for implementing the measures against security risks will once again be decided by Turkey," a Turkish official told Reuters.

Do Russia and Iran back Turkey's move?

Russia and Iran, the other two major foreign powers in Syria, strongly support Syrian President Bashar Assad – unlike Turkey and the United States, which both called for him to stand down and supported rebels fighting to overthrow him.

Russia has said that Turkey has the right to defend itself, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Syria's territorial integrity must be preserved and that all foreign military forces "with illegal presence" should leave Syria.

If the US pulls out all its troops from northeast Syria, the Damascus government – backed by Russia – may try to retake control of much of the region not seized by Turkey.

What is the western reaction to Turkey's plan?

There has been no public support from Turkey's Western allies for its plan to settle 2 million Syrians – more than half of the refugees it currently hosts – in northeast Syria.

The main Western concerns are that an influx of Sunni Arab Syrians into the largely Kurdish northeast would change the demographics of the region.

The United Nations regional coordinator for the Syria crisis said all sides should avoid major displacement of civilians if Turkey launches an assault.

What does this mean for Assad?

While the territory in question is already outside Syrian government control, a Turkish incursion would mean the area switching from a non-hostile force – the SDF – to Turkey and rebels that have sought to topple Assad.

Damascus has long viewed Turkey as an occupying power with designs on northern Syria. It has also at times suggested a willingness to strike a deal with the Kurds, though their last negotiations got nowhere.

What could this mean for the Islamic State?

Chaos could present Islamic State with an opportunity to stage a revival and the SDF has been conducting operations against ISIS sleeper cells since capturing its final territorial foothold earlier this year.

Syrian Kurdish leaders have long warned that the SDF may not be able to continue holding IS prisoners if the situation was destabilized by a Turkish invasion.

The SDF is still holding 5,000 ISIS fighters of Syrian and Iraqi nationality and a further 1,000 foreigners from more than 55 other states, according to the foreign relations department of the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria.

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