Tulsi Gabbard is expected to face questions on her 2017 visit to Syria at her confirmation hearing for director of national intelligence Thursday.

Tulsi Gabbard is expected to face tough questions about her past comments about Russia, Syria and a key government surveillance program as lawmakers vet her to lead the nation’s intelligence service

The leader of Syria’s former rebels who toppled President Bashar Assad last month was named the country’s interim president on Wednesday as former insurgents also cancelled the existing constitution,

The new leadership of the country said the rebel coalition leader, Ahmed al-Shara, would serve as president during a transitional period.

Assad last month was named the country's interim president on Wednesday as former insurgents cancelled the existing constitution, saying a new charter would be drafted soon.

A delegation of Russian officials is in Damascus, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. It is the first such visit to Syria since the fall in December of former President Bashar Assad, an ally of Moscow.

Syria’s new leaders said Wednesday they had discussed “transitional justice” with the first Russian official delegation to visit Damascus since the toppling of long-term Moscow ally Bashar al-Assad. The visit came with Russia keen to secure the fate of two military bases in Syria and after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Moscow had suffered

Shara, have demanded that Russia extradite Bashar al-Assad. The former leader of Syria found asylum in the Kremlin after fleeing the country. Reuters reported on the demand for Russia to extradite Bashar al-Assad,