Syrian Christians attended Christmas Eve services on Tuesday for the first time since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in early December, in an early test of the new Islamist rulers' pledges to protect the rights of the country's religious minorities.

In Syria, after 13 years of civil war, armed rebels took the capital Damascus, in a lightning advance, prompting President Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia on 8. Much of the country is now run by rebels led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group,

Rapturous celebrations in the streets of the capital were tempered by trepidation over whether the city’s new rebel caretakers could deliver a better future.

DAMASCUS (AP) — Thousands of Syrians gathered Friday in Damascus' historic main mosque for the first Muslim Friday prayers since the downfall of former President Bashar Assad, while giant crowds celebrated in the capital’s largest square.

Protests in Christian neighborhoods of Syria's capital city erupted after a Christmas tree was set ablaze weeks after the downfall of the nation's longtime dictatorship, according to multiple reports.

Syrian Christians gathered at churches in the country's capital Damascus on Wednesday amid tight security measures to celebrate their first Christmas after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. "Today there is a large deployment of security to protect the churches,

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