>> The dictatorship of Bashar al Assad is crumbling.

>> NARRATOR: Correspondent Martin Smith investigates the rise of Ahmad Al Sharaa, from Al-Qaeda commander to Syrian leader.

>> I don’t know of anyone who accurately predicted he was likely to pose a real threat to the Assad regime.

>> NARRATOR: And the country’s uncertain future.

>> There are still extremist elements, Mr. al Sharaa is walking a tightrope.

>> NARRATOR: Now on FRONTLINE, Syria After Assad.

♪ ♪ (cars honking in celebration) (honking continues) (crowd cheering) (honking continues) (celebratory gunfire) (crowd cheering) (cheering and honking continue) (celebratory gunfire) >> WOMAN (speaking Arabic): (crowd cheering) >> (speaking Arabic): >> We've been seeing these amazing images all day coming out of Syria, right, of tens of thousands of people out on the streets celebrating.

Celebrating a new Syria, and also tasting freedom after decades of repression.

>> MAN (speaking Kermanji): (crowds cheering) >> Quite simply, no one saw this coming.

>> Bashar al Assad has clung on to power through years of civil war.

But now, a new rebel movement has managed to topple his regime in less than two weeks.

(crowd cheering) >> What we've been seeing from the rebel leadership is a clear attempt to signal that they want an inclusive Syria and that they want to avoid more conflict.

The leader-- al-Jolani-- has even interestingly, you know, dropped his jihadi nom de guerre.

He now calls himself by his original birth name, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

You know, even that is a signal that he is not trying to impose his jihadist position.

>> AHMED AL-SHARAA (speaking Arabic): (crowds cheering and clapping) >> MAN (speaking Arabic): >> We are tracking one of the most extraordinary events in Middle East history.

This will have a profound impact on the region and beyond.

>> There is real joy here, but there is also real concern.

No one knows what's going to happen next.

(crowd chanting fading out) (motors rumbling) (din of traffic) >> AL-SHARAA: >> He was right here when this place was hit.

>> MARTIN SMITH: I met Ahmed al-Sharaa in 2021, in Syria's Idlib province.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> It's not Times Square.

>> SMITH: My cameraman and I were the first Western journalists to meet him.

(turn signal clicking) At the time, he went by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.

He was also then a wanted man with a ten million-dollar bounty on his head.

And he had a long history as a jihadist.

(explosion booming) At age 21, al-Jolani joined al-Qaeda in Iraq to fight and kill Americans.

(explosion booming) Captured by U.S. forces, he spent five years in Iraqi prisons, including Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: Soon after he was released, he came back to Syria and formed an al-Qaeda branch to fight Assad.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: By the time we met, al-Jolani had broken ties with al-Qaeda and was trying to moderate his image, to get the world to reconsider him.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: He took us to a camp of internally displaced Syrians, where he assured the residents that he was planning to defeat Assad and send them home.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: Al-Jolani's key ally in the region was Turkey.

It was Turkish intelligence that had taken us into Idlib, so al-Jolani could be heard.

But at the time, Jolani's odds of victory were very long.

Assad controlled most of the country.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: However, with his army-- Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham, or HTS-- al-Jolani was determined to strike at the heart of the Assad regime and march straight to the capital.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: All together, I spent seven days in Idlib.

Al-Jolani struck me as remarkably open.

At one point, we were taken to his military command headquarters.

>> HTS OFFICER (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: Al-Jolani had come to review the current situation on their frontlines.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: They were facing pressure from Assad's principal allies, Iran and Russia.

>> HTS OFFICER: >> AL-SHARAA: >> HTS OFFICER: >> SMITH: So, are the Russians flying, ah, drones over this area?

>> HTS OFFICER: >> AL-SHARAA: >> HTS OFFICER: >> SMITH: I hear it, I hear it.

(plane flying overhead) >> HTS OFFICER: (indistinct shouting over radio) (explosion booming) (indistinct radio chatter) >> SMITH: The day after showing me his maps, al-Jolani sat down for an interview.

(in interview): You are in a box, it seems to me, with the Russians, with the Iranians, with the regime.

What is your strategy?

>> AL-SHARAA: ♪ ♪ >> SMITH: After I left Idlib, I posted a picture of al-Jolani and me on Twitter.

(Twitter alert chimes) The post went viral.

Al-Jolani was ridiculed for wearing a suit.

I was criticized for talking to a terrorist.

So how did an obscure, besieged rebel leader manage to topple a dictator?

(loaded rifles clicking) It began three years after I met al-Jolani, in November 2024, when his forces launched an assault on Aleppo, Syria's second largest city.

>> HTS SOLDIER (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: They entered from above and below ground, a coordinated ambush utilizing a vast network of tunnels.

>> HTS SOLDIER 2 (speaking Arabic): >> HTS SOLDIER: >> SMITH: The attack blindsided everyone.

(weapons firing, indistinct shouting) (rapid gunfire) >> I don't know of anyone who accurately predicted that Jolani was likely to pose a real threat to the Assad regime.

I mean, I was the deputy national security advisor, had access to all the intelligence information, analytic information the U.S. government has.

I first heard that we should be watching Aleppo, uh, from somebody outside of the U.S. government... (explosion booming) who said, "You might want to pay attention "to what is happening here.

It is different from what we've seen before."

(soldiers shouting indistinctly) >> SMITH: The city fell to al-Jolani in three days.

>> AL-SHARAA: (talking indistinctly) >> I truly think that they only thought that they were going to take over Aleppo... and then hold there and see how that went, and then try to build themselves up strong enough to then move on elsewhere, and then it might take some time.

But in fact, because there was no true counter-offensive, the military people were like "All right, nobody's going after us, let's keep on going!"

(motorcycle engines revving) >> Syrian rebel fighters are advancing southward after seizing control of Aleppo, that's one of Syria's largest cities... >> SMITH: As al-Jolani's forces headed south toward Damascus, the assumption was still that Iran and Russia would come to Assad's rescue.

>> Those rebels have just blitzed through the countryside, and they've made enormous gains in the east, in the south... >> HTS SOLDIER (speaking Arabic): (celebratory gunfire) >> More celebrations today in the city of Hama.

The rebels' advance across the country has been lightning-fast.

But where's the Syrian army in all of this?

Because they mostly seem to be surrendering or defecting.

>> The Syrian regime completely gave up.

Assad's officers on the front line were getting paid $30 a month, enlisted men about ten dollars a month, and... >> SMITH: Joshua Landis is a professor at the University of Oklahoma, director of their Center for Middle East Studies.

>> American sanctions had really hollowed out that regime and when we saw the rebel soldiers come down, and many of them had night vision goggles on there-- and these fantastic uniforms.

Much better than anything Assad soldiers had.

It was clear that Turkey had been really building up these militias.

And also, Assad lost all of his allies.

Hezbollah had been decapitated by Israel.

They were major supporters of the Assad regime.

>> This morning, Israel and Hezbollah are exchanging missile and drone attacks across the border... >> SMITH: Hezbollah, and its patron Iran, became increasingly engaged with Israel.

They had shifted their focus away from Syria.

(cameras clicking) And Assad's other ally was also distracted.

>> And Russia, of course, was completely preoccupied in the Ukraine, and had not been resupplying him, so Assad was cut off.

>> And after decades in the country, Russia is pulling back.

This video shows military vehicles with Russian flags leaving the Damascus region... >> According to my contacts, the Russians were ready to go back to the bombing campaign that had been so effective in beating down the Syrian opposition.

However, they immediately saw A-- that there was no real effective infantry, 'cause there was almost no Iranian proxy forces from Hezbollah.

And once Aleppo fell, it was obvious that whether the Russians dropped bombs or not, it wasn't going to stop this massive offensive.

(vehicles honking horns, sirens blaring) >> Last week it was Aleppo.

Yesterday, the city of Homs.

Last night, the outskirts of Damascus.

>> At this point, it appears that the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad is crumbling.

>> Nobody read what was happening on the ground correctly.

Not the outsiders, not Assad and his backers.

>> SMITH: So, Jolani finds himself pushing on an open door.

>> Exactly.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: Everyone misread the situation, except al-Jolani.

In this meeting with followers nearly five years earlier, he predicted precisely how he would achieve victory.

>> AL-SHARAA: ♪ ♪ >> NEWSCASTER (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: So al-Jolani, in less than two weeks, conquered Syria.

Just as he had promised.

(crowd cheering) Why should Americans care about what happens in Syria?

Why should Americans care about the fall of Assad or the rise of al-Sharaa?

>> It's not that Syria per se is important.

It's that what happens in Syria impacts all of the Middle East.

Syria can generate massive refugee flows.

And it has terrorism that does not stay in the region, as we saw all over Europe in 2015, '16, with the Islamic State.

These are issues at the center of the Middle East.

>> SMITH: And Syria sits squarely in the center of the Middle East, sharing borders with five U.S. strategic partners in the region: Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon.

Should it be considered an intelligence failure that we didn't see-- either that Jolani, at that time... >> Mm-hmm.

>> SMITH: ...was a potent force to be dealt with, or that Assad, the regime, was rotting from within?

>> Look, I think anyone you might've asked, either in the policy side, the intel side, whether in state, NSC, D.O.D., our folks in the field, people would've been easily able to reckon-- yes, the regime is... is stagnant.

You know things are brittle, but you don't know how brittle they are, and you don't know what kind of punch knocks the whole thing to pieces.

♪ ♪ >> More than two weeks after Assad fled Syria, Syrian families are still searching for answers about so many of their loved ones taken by Assad's secret police over the years.

>> At least 200,000 people are missing after more than... >> I have trouble thinking of the collapse of the Assad regime.

(indistinct talking) It's 54 years.

54 years that the Syrians have been repressed.

And so, when in 11 days, a regime like this collapses, it takes you time to understand it, to believe it... >> And what we're identifying is multiple mass graves, all these places where hundreds of thousands of bodies-- men, women, children, elderly-- had been not just shot in the head, but mostly tortured to death.

Really a sadistic regime.

>> Anything was better than the Assad regime.

(metal striking wall) We saw the videos, how prisoners were treated... >> MAN (speaking Arabic): >> The brutality of the regime.

>> MAN: >> Children born from raped mothers in prisons that were born in prison.

>> MAN (speaking Arabic): >> Anything other than Assad is good, even if it's the devil.

(distant traffic) (crowd chanting) >> SMITH: During his first weeks in power, al-Sharaa walked the streets of Damascus, talking to people, reassuring everyone what his plans were.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> From day one, when Ahmed al-Sharaa took Damascus, he talked about peace and reconciliation, reunifying the country... >> AL-SHARAA: >> He talked about disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration.

He used all of the phrases that you would read in a textbook about a political transition.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: The world's press soon arrived to meet and talk with the new leader.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: As did a parade of foreign diplomats.

(camera shutter clicks) >> The world rushed to Damascus.

Foreign ministers, emirs, prime ministers, presidents are seeking to shake Ahmed al-Sharaa's hand, amazed by this historic opportunity.

First time in more than 50 years, to reshape the heart of the Middle East for the better.

(traffic blaring, horns honking) >> As we all turn to the question of what comes next in Syria... >> SMITH: In Washington, the Biden administration was weighing what it should do.

>> We've taken note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days.

And they're saying the right things now... >> We were struck by the interviews that Jolani gave in the early days after assuming power, in which, yes, he "said the right things", but said them with a degree of sophistication and conviction and detail... >> AL-SHARAA: >> He gave us some reason to believe that this might be a different sort of leader.

So we decided that at a certain point we would need to engage.

>> SMITH: Less than two weeks after al-Sharaa's victory, a U.S. State Department delegation headed by Barbara Leaf set out from neighboring Jordan to meet with him.

>> We took off down the highway at speed, and we drove through a very dilapidated countryside, I will say.

Really looked beaten down.

As we got into Damascus, it was difficult to measure what security would be like.

Were there militias roaming at will?

Was there any security?

Had all the remnants of the regime fled for good?

(indistinct talking) >> SMITH: They arrived at the presidential palace 12 days after Assad had fled to Moscow.

>> So we were walked into this big cavernous palace, and taken upstairs, and all of a sudden there they were.

♪ ♪ >> SMITH: Talk about how he struck you.

>> Having worked for many four-star generals in the American military, I felt like I was talking to a very senior general, not that different than an American commander who had a very deep understanding of warfare, economics, policy, what he wanted to achieve, how he might want to achieve it.

I walked away impressed.

>> He just had this air of calm, quiet authority and a whiff of charisma, frankly.

I mean, I had to almost close my eyes and remind myself I was talking to a Syrian official, with the very easy way he talked about Israel.

No diatribes, no recitation of 40 years of history, you know, the way Hafez al-Assad would.

"Let me tell you about 1948," sort of start of the conversation.

And of course at that time, the Israelis had moved in up on the Golan Heights on the Syrian soil... >> SMITH: And they were bombing.

>> And they were bombing.

(explosion echoing) >> MAN (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: Israel, long in a state of war with Syria, immediately started bombing and dismantling Syria's remaining military capabilities.

>> Israel has been bombarding every part of Syria's military.

Fighter jets, naval assets, surface-to-surface missiles, they have taken out everything.

>> SMITH: The Israelis say they told the Biden administration what they were planning to do.

Al-Sharaa asked Barbara Leaf to get Israel to stop.

>> He was very matter-of-fact in his request.

He said, "Could you get the Israelis to stop bombing?

They're scaring my people."

And he was at pains to say repeatedly, "We have no argument with Israel."

>> I don't doubt that al-Sharaa has no interest in going to war with Israel... >> SMITH: Michael Herzog was Israeli ambassador to the U.S. at the time.

He told me that Israel was particularly worried about Assad's weapons and chemical stockpiles falling into the wrong hands.

>> We all know the background of al-Sharaa and the people around him.

They all come from the schools of al-Qaeda and ISIS.

They all have jihadi background and that was, and remains, a source of concern in Israel.

>> SMITH: How does continuing to strike militarily, with bombs, encourage al-Sharaa's moderation?

It would seem to me the opposite's true, that that encourages the jihadists... >> Well, Israel is not going to... strike military capabilities forever.

There's... the more we do it, the less there is left to... destroy.

And again, we're talking about specific military capabilities that we do not want to be there, because they could be used against us, either by this new regime or by others.

♪ ♪ >> SMITH: Initially, Israel did say the bombing campaign would be brief.

>> I emphasize, it is a very limited and temporary step... (explosion booming) >> SMITH: But Israel has continued striking targets for months, killing an estimated two dozen civilians in the process, Israel has also seized land in southern Syria, expanding what it calls its security zone.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: At an Arab summit in March, al-Sharaa asked for help.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> I think behind Israel is an agenda, is an intention.

To weaken Syria, to break it up, and to expand Israeli boundaries.

Without any accountability by the international community.

And that is really the recipe for future violence, not for peace.

>> SMITH: They don't see it that way.

>> The French and the British, when they carved up the Middle East, didn't see it that way, either.

>> DRIVER and PRODUCER (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: By mid-January 2025, when I returned to Syria, I was planning on seeing al-Sharaa again... (camera clicking) but it seemed he was distracted-- his honeymoon was coming to an end.

Resistance to his government was emerging around the country.

A large pocket was here in the south, in the city of Sweida, the heartland of Syria's Druze.

(Druze singing and chanting) The Druze are a minority religious group, an ancient offshoot of Shia Islam.

And since al-Sharaa came to power, they have been reluctant to support him, or trust his jihadist followers.

(Druze clapping and chanting) >> SHAKIB AZZAM (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: Shakib Azzam is commander of a large Druze militia called the Mountain Brigade.

His people, he said, felt excluded.

He complained that the new government was stacked with al-Sharaa's own people.

>> AZZAM: >> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: The complaint that I heard is that Sharaa was stocking his cabinet with friends from his government in Idlib, and they were all fellow Islamists.

Was it inevitable that al-Sharaa did that?

>> I should think it is.

You know, he's been fighting a war since he's 20 years old.

He's been a warrior.

He's been leading a militia that is deeply Islamist.

When he first got to Idlib, he said, "This is going to be an entity for Sunnis."

And so there's this deep Sunni supremacist attitude that comes along with him.

>> SMITH: Under scrutiny, was one of al-Sharaa's initial cabinet members.

His justice minister was filmed in 2015 overseeing the execution of two women in Idlib, accused of corruption and prostitution.

>> (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: How do you explain his appointment of a justice minister who is, in video, executing two women?

>> He's gotten a lot of protests over this.

There are still extremist elements, and this is the source of concern to many secular Syrians.

Mr. al-Sharaa is walking a tightrope.

>> SMITH: Al-Sharaa has since replaced his justice minister.

And by the end of March, he formed a new cabinet that was much more inclusive.

It's very interesting.

Do you speak English?

(voiceover): But these Druze leaders may not be assuaged.

They cite too much bad history.

>> (speaking English): >> SMITH: Ten years earlier, members of al-Sharaa's group executed 20 Druze in an Idlib village, accusing them of heresy.

Al-Sharaa's group later said the attack went against his orders.

There is a very important struggle going on right now... (voiceover): Today in Sweida, the Druze are refusing to give up their guns.

(off camera): How many men do you have in arms?

>> AZZAM: (indistinct chatter) >> SMITH: The day after my meeting with the Mountain Brigade, we got a tip from a local journalist.

>> PRODUCER (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: There was a large convoy of al-Sharaa's soldiers patrolling in the nearby countryside.

(off camera): That's a big convoy.

>> It is a big convoy.

Okay, let's try to follow them.

>> SMITH: They were going from town to town in a show of force, assuring Syrians that al-Sharaa was restoring order in the country.

>> SOLDIER 1 (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: But the soldiers were also here demanding loyalty, warning everyone in no uncertain terms to cooperate in the fight against any armed resistance to al-Sharaa's government.

>> SOLDIER 2 (speaking Arabic): (indistinct chatter) >> SMITH: At the end of the day, these soldiers paused to pray.

A common Muslim ritual.

But Al-Sharaa's forces are staunchly conservative Sunnis.

As seen by the Druze from nearby Sweida, or by defeated Assad loyalists, rule by a band of Islamists is deeply troubling.

Under Assad religion was downplayed.

Assad was an Alawite, a minority sect of Islam, but he promoted a largely secular vision for Syria.

Assad's base was here along Syria's Mediterranean coast, in communities with a concentration of Alawites.

After Assad's defeat, some coastal residents feared for their safety.

And there were reports that some were being targeted.

Then in early March some Assad loyalists attacked one of al-Sharaa's government patrols.

>> MAN (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: 16 men lay dead.

And more lethal attacks followed.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> And today, what we're seeing is a huge security operation targeting forces loyal to the Assad regime.

>> And so there was a general mobilization of the military.

And then the mosques began to call for jihad.

>> IMAM (speaking Arabic): (crowd cheers) >> SMITH: Tensions had been building for weeks with provocative online threats, like these, against the Alawites.

>> (speaking Arabic): >> SMITH: Some linked to suspicious foreign accounts.

>> (speaking Arabic): >> (speaking Arabic): >> You know, put hate in your hearts, go to that coast, smash the Alawites.

>> SMITH: Thousands of militia men joined al-Sharaa's government forces and descended on the coast.

(indistinct chatter) >> And then just a flood of videos begin to come out, and some of the soldiers and these militia men making these Alawites, you know long strings of them, walk on their hands and knees, bark like a dog... >> MAN (speaking Arabic): >> And then they started carrying out these massacres.

(gunfire) Just shooting people up and down.

It was a free for all-- and they're having a good time!

>> MILITIA MAN 1 (speaking Arabic): >> MILITIA MAN 2 (speaking Arabic): >> MILITIA MAN 1 (speaking Arabic): >> MAN (speaking Arabic on computer): >> SMITH: This eyewitness says three of his family members were executed.

We're blurring his face to protect his identity.

>> MAN: (man saying prayer) >> MILITIA MAN 1 (speaking Arabic): >> MILITIA MAN 1: >> MILITIA MAN 2: >> SMITH: So, you wake up to these images that are then online and you and your wife are together... >> Yeah.

>> SMITH: She's Alawite.

>> She's Alawite.

>> SMITH: You have relatives, in-laws living there.

>> Yeah, you know, three of my wife's cousins wrote us the next day, people came to their door, bang, bang, bang.

You open it up, "Who are you?

Sunni or Alawite?"

It was the first thing that each one of them said they were asked.

One cousin, who grew up with my son, um, we knew well, was shot at his doorstep.

He was 19, 20 years old.

>> SMITH: Over the course of several days, an estimated 1,200 people were killed, mostly Alawites.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: Al-Sharaa called for a thorough investigation.

>> AL-SHARAA: >> This investigation committee, will they actually provide reports with names?

Will those people be held accountable?

Those are real tests, so look at them and ask al-Sharaa, "If you do that, we trust you.

If you don't, no, we don't trust you."

>> Damascus says it has successfully contained the offensive on the coast.

But while Ahmed al-Sharaa may be in control of some of the men in uniforms, he is not in control of all of them men with guns.

>> SMITH: It is in Syria's far northeastern corner where al-Sharaa faces perhaps his biggest challenge.

This is the homeland of Syria's Kurds, the largest non-Arab minority in Syria.

Kurds have long been subject to systematic discrimination, including the arbitrary denial of citizenship to around 150,000 Syria-born Kurds, who are not allowed to have passports, who can't own property, get a marriage license or find work.

Whose children are also considered non-citizens.

Kurds have not fared well elsewhere either.

They form the largest stateless ethnic group in the world.

With 30 million people concentrated in an area straddling Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

After Syria's civil war began in 2012, Kurds here in the northeast broke free of Assad, and established a semi-autonomous region they called Rojava.

How did Syria ever lose control of the northeast?

>> When Assad's forces faced massive armed opposition during the Arab Spring, they pulled troops out of the northeast to hold off against the opposition, the resistance in the rest of the country.

So the Kurds split off and they're currently a state within a state.

>> NEWSCASTER (speaking Kermanji): (cheers and applause) >> SMITH: I went to Rojava in April 2025.

To see and hear the Kurd's powerful and immensely popular rebel leader, General Mazloum Abdi Kobane.

>> MAZLOUM (speaking Kermanji): (cheers and applause) >> SMITH: After the conference, I met with General Mazloum at his headquarters.

I want to begin by talking about this unity conference that took place yesterday.

I was there; what is the significance of the declaration that came out of that conference?

>> MAZLOUM: >> SMITH: Do the people trust a former al-Qaeda commander to rule Syria, or to preserve or to give you autonomy?

>> MAZLOUM: >> SMITH: From al-Sharaa's perspective, integrating the Kurds back into Syria is essential.

He needed to make a deal.

And why is Northeast Syria important to al-Sharaa?

>> I mean, Northeastern Syria contains 80% of Syria's natural energy resources.

So oil and gas, hugely significant, the lifeblood of the Syrian economy.

And then on top of that, it's the agricultural belt of the country.

So if Syria is able to get anywhere close to feeding itself, it needs that region of Syria.

Without that under Damascus's control, there really is no hope.

>> And then there's water.

Rojava controls the Euphrates River, in part, and the dam.

So that northeast, very important for the economy, oil, agriculture, water.

(officer shouting command) >> SMITH: Mazloum also leads a 100,000 man U.S.-backed army the Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF, which is battle-hardened and well-supplied.

The Americans trained and equipped the SDF to help them defeat ISIS after a large swath of Kurdish territory was seized by ISIS in 2014.

>> The SDF definitely has some power in the negotiation with Sharaa, not only in terms of the resources, but also because they have a pretty robust military that's been trained by the United States and the Global Coalition, too.

(soldiers shouting) And some have said that it might even be a larger military than the one that's currently in Damascus.

>> SMITH: But the Kurds still have an ISIS problem.

They have around 10,000 suspected ISIS fighters locked up in Kurdish prisons, along with two massive camps filled with 40,000 women and children, the families of these prisoners.

In the Kurdish city of Hasakah, I was allowed a look inside one of these prisons.

(off-camera): Can I look in some of these cells?

This one, filled with foreign fighters.

(off-camera): Do you speak English?

>> Yeah.

>> SMITH: Your brothers in this, in this cell, tell me, where are they from?

Where, what countries?

>> There's people from all over the world with me.

>> SMITH: Just foreigners together.

(voiceover): The Kurds need help repatriating these prisoners.

No one wants to take them.

The Kurds have something like 29 prisons full of ISIS prisoners.

You're trying to repatriate them... >> MAZLOUM: >> SMITH: After weeks of negotiations, Mazloum set out for Damascus to meet al-Sharaa and hammer out an agreement on Kurdish rights, autonomy, on resources, the military and ISIS.

(camera shutters clicking) >> The broad outlines were that Mazloum would put the SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, under the authority of the Ministry of Defense, in Damascus.

And, uh, and they came up with an agreement on oil that was going to give the Kurds a big share of all oil revenues.

>> SMITH: And finally, there were issues concerning Kurdish status in the new Syria.

Al-Sharaa specifically agreed to recognize Kurds as fully Syrian and he guaranteed their constitutional rights.

>> The Kurds want Syria to be called the Syrian Republic.

So it'd be Syria for all Syrians.

Traditionally, it's been the Syrian Arab Republic.

(cheering, car horns honking) >> SMITH: Initially, Kurds celebrated the agreement.

>> CROWD (chanting in Arabic): >> Breaking news.

Syria's government has struck a deal.

After weeks of negotiations between Damascus and the Kurds... >> The Syrian state is recognizing the Kurdish community as an integral part of Syria.

That is a major, major development... >> SMITH: Then three days later, al-Sharaa issued a new Syrian constitution.

It was not what Mazloum envisioned.

>> It said Syrian Arab Republic.

Right at the top.

And it didn't write the Kurds in.

It didn't give them representation.

It didn't outline the agreement.

>> SMITH: The constitution did promise to protect minority rights, but the Kurds said the language was too vague.

The document also contained article 3 which deals with Islamic jurisprudence.

>> It was changed from "Islamic law "will be a source of law--" that's what it was under Assad.

Now, it's, "Islamic law will be the source of law."

So, this makes it very potentially Sharia law will become the law of the land.

This sent a shudder through many of the minority communities.

>> MAN (speaking Kermanji): >> MAN (speaking Kermanji): (woman speaking on loudspeaker) >> MAZLOUM: >> SMITH: I would imagine you were tempted to pick up the phone and call al-Sharaa and say, "What's going on?"

>> MAZLOUM: >> SMITH: In an open letter, Kurdish authorities laid out their complete rejection of the new constitution and its attempt to recreate a dictatorship.

Syria, they wrote, "is a homeland for all its people.

"We will not accept the reconstruction of an authoritarian regime."

>> CROWD (chanting Arabic): >> SMITH: To date, al-Sharaa has decided not to revise the constitution.

>> (speaking Kermanji): >> SMITH: The question I have is how he could, three days after having this deal signed with Mazloum, come out with a constitutional declaration at the very top it says the Syrian Arab Republic.

>> Yes.

That is a glaring piece that has not been fixed.

He's making mistakes... >> SMITH (voiceover): I went back to speak via Zoom with Ambassador Barbara Leaf.

>> If he wants a stable Syria, he's going to be compelled to take into account the changed landscape of Syria.

Changed by 14 years of this brutal civil war, but he has to look at a longer scope of history where these communities were pitted against one another.

So the high degree of mistrust is in multiple directions, but they all mistrust Damascus.

(passing traffic) >> SMITH: I wanted to hear al-Sharaa's response to all the turmoil around the country.

I repeatedly pressed for an interview-- to no avail.

We did visit this courthouse in the city of Homs, central Syria.

We met this man, chief judge Hassan al Aqraa, a staunch supporter of al-Sharaa.

At the time, al Aqraa was systematically going through all the files that were seized from the Assad regime.

He said new laws were still being written.

>> AL AQRAA (speaking Arabic): >> AL-SHARAA: >> SMITH: In May, President Trump made a trip to the Middle East.

There was a jolt of good news for al-Sharaa.

>> After discussing the situation in Syria with the Crown Prince, your Crown Prince... (cheers and applause) >> SMITH: In Saudi Arabia, Trump announced that economic sanctions imposed during the Assad regime would finally be lifted.

>> I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.

(cheers and applause) >> SMITH: Despite opposition from some hawks in D.C., Trump was widely praised for the move.

People in the administration were opposed to this, so what was behind all that?

>> I think it's very clear what was behind that.

He heard over the last several months consistently from the Saudis, from Erdogan, from others, that this was an existential moment for Syria to get onto a path-- a long one, albeit-- but a path of recovery and successful political and economic and security transition.

And that that would be good for regional interests, that would be good for U.S. interests.

>> SMITH: The following day, al-Sharaa and Trump met.

The former al-Qaeda commander, who spent years in American prison camps in Iraq, accused of making powerful roadside bombs, had come a long way.

>> Young, attractive guy.

Tough guy, you know?

Strong past, very strong past.

Fighter.

♪ ♪ >> The situation is very fluid, we just have to wait and see what happens.

We need to see this new administration be inclusive of all Syrians.

We need to make sure that Syria will no longer be a center of terrorism.

(siren blaring) >> If Syria can be united and stable and Iran can be kept out, then the temporary tactical defeat of Iran and proxies will become a permanent defeat.

If not, if Syria becomes a failed state, if it goes back to active fighting and various outside forces intervening and split up, it will open the door for Iran again.

(protesters shouting) >> SMITH: As we were leaving Syria, events underscored just how fragile al-Sharaa's rule is.

(gunfire) Sectarian clashes erupted in several cities, after a Druze religious leader was falsely accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

(people shouting, horn blaring) Around one hundred Druze militia men and government security forces were killed.

>> NETANYAHU (speaking Hebrew): >> SMITH: The Israelis, with a large Druze minority at home, have been issuing warnings to al-Sharaa not to harm the Druze.

>> Israel carried out airstrikes today in Damascus... >> SMITH: To make their point, an Israel missile landed right outside al-Sharaa's palace gates.

>> ...a direct message to stop threatening the Druze community.

♪ ♪ >> SMITH: For now, al-Sharaa remains popular with the majority of Syrians.

But he has been keeping a lower profile of late, avoiding most interviews.

I mean, he enjoyed a honeymoon.

He talked to diplomats like yourself.

He talked to journalists.

He visited other regional states.

But he's been relatively quiet.

He's not in a honeymoon phase anymore.

>> No.

And governance is hard.

The easy part is going on a foreign trip, but the hardest part is internally.

It's governance.

It's the daily slog of reconstructing an administrative apparatus, which is pretty worn and torn and riddled with corruption.

From the years of destruction of the Assad family rule.

(siren blaring) It's a hard, hard road ahead.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Go to pbs.org/frontline.

>> Bashar al-Assad has clung on to power through years of civil war.

But now a new rebel movement has managed to topple his regime.

>> NARRATOR: For all our past reporting on Syria and more on the human toll of the Syrian War.

>> Human rights organizations estimate that tens of thousands of people have disappeared since the Syrian conflict began.

Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook and Instagram and stream anytime on the PBS app, YouTube, or pbs.org/frontline.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org >> For more on this and other "FRONTLINE" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ FRONTLINE's "Syria After Assad" is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪ ♪