Leader of rebels who toppled Syrian president Assad named interim president

Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani (Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP)

The leader of the former rebel group that toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad has been named the country’s interim president, following a meeting of the former insurgent factions.

The spokesman for Syria’s new, de facto government’s military operations sector, Colonel Hassan Abdul Ghani, announced the appointment of Ahmad al-Sharaa as the country’s president “in the transitional phase”, the state-run SANA news agency said.