Syrian rebel leader Jolani denies getting foreign backing

The leader of the Syrian opposition forces that stormed into Damascus and sent ousted president Bashar Assad fleeing to Russia, visited a mosque he used to attend as a youngster in the suburbs of Damascus on Tuesday.

Inside the Imam al Shafi'i Mosque in the neighbourhood of Mezzeh, Abu Mohammad al Jolani, who now asks to be called by his birth name Ahmed al Sharaa, praised the efforts of his fighters who, he said, took charge of Syria without any foreign support or interference, also noting that all former 'colonisers' had failed to control the country.

The Syrian opposition forces are led by a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, that originally was part of al-Qaida, but split a number of years ago.

HTS is considered a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. and the United Nations. Al-Sharaa has sought to reassure Syrians that the group is more moderate.

Life in Damascus is slowly returning to normal after the insurgents ousted Assad over the weekend.

Syria's nearly 14-year civil war killed almost half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, becoming a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers.