Clashes between Islamists who took over Syria and supporters of ousted President Bashar Assad's government killed two Islamic fighters on Wednesday and wounded others, according to interim officials.

The Pentagon announced the US currently has “approximately 2,000” troops in Syria, more than double the previously disclosed number of 900, a Defense Department spokesperson said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Syria's new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

As the rebels who ousted Syria’s longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, transition from insurgents to administrators, maintaining order in the streets of the capital has become a top priority.

The U.N. organization assisting in investigating the most serious crimes in Syria says the country’s new authorities were “very receptive” to its request for cooperation during a just-concluded visit to Damascus — and it is preparing to deploy.

Syria’s de facto new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has tried to cast his leadership as one that will protect minorities, including Christians, in the Sunni-majority country.

Syria's new leaders announced Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with the country's rebel groups on their dissolution and integration under the defence ministry.

Syrian clashes between Islamists and Assad supporters leave two dead, as sectarian violence threatens stability.

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.

Syria’s new Islamist-led authorities said the footage was “old” and that “unknown groups” were behind the attack, saying “republishing” the video served to “stir up strife”, a day after hundreds protested in Damascus against the torching of a Christmas tree.

An act of arson against a Christmas tree in the predominantly Christian town of Suqaylabiyah has ignited protests across Syria and fuelled anxieties about the future of religious minorities.