Syrian rebels appoint Mohd al-Bashir as interim PM

Will be the head of transitional govt till March 1; 40 tortured bodies found in Damascus morgue

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The rebels in Syria appointed a transitional head of government on Tuesday to run the country until March 1, a statement said.

"The general command has tasked us with running the transitional government until March 1," said a statement attributed to Mohammad al-Bashir on state television's Telegram account, referring to him as "the new Syrian prime minister".

Meanwhile, the rebel fighters said they found around 40 bodies bearing signs of torture inside a hospital morgue near Damascus on Monday, stuffed into body bags with numbers and sometimes names written on them.

"I opened the door of the morgue with my own hands; it was a horrific sight: about 40 bodies were piled up showing signs of gruesome torture," Mohammed al-Hajj, a fighter with rebel factions from the country's south, said by telephone from Damascus.