The EU's envoy to Syria headed to Damascus Monday to hold talks with the country's new Islamist rulers, just over a week after president Bashar al-Assad's ouster ended decades of brutal rule and civil war.
The move from Brussels came after the United States and Britain said they had made contact with the new authorities in the Syrian capital.
After facing down a democracy revolt in 2011 with a crackdown that sparked 13 years of civil war, Assad fled after a rebel offensive brought his rule to a stunning end.