DAMASCUS

Syria’s new leadership appointed Anas Khattab as the head of the country’s intelligence service, local media said.

The appointment was part of efforts to restructure Syria’s state institutions following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, the state news agency SANA reported.

Khattab, 37, hails from Jayrud, a town in the Damascus countryside.

Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of the capital Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party’s regime, which had been in power since 1963.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio