A week after a lightning offensive toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, Syrians are only beginning to scratch the surface of the atrocities committed under his rule, as the country's new rulers seek to reassure the international community.

UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen arrived in Damascus on Sunday, his spokesperson said, declining to give details of his agenda.

Calm is slowly returning to the streets of the capital, with dozens of children streaming back to school on Sunday for the first time since Assad fled.

"The school has asked us to send middle and upper pupils back to class," said mother of three Raghida Ghosn, 56.

"The younger ones will go back in two days," she told AFP.

An official at one Damascus school said "no more than 30 percent" were back on Sunday, but that "these numbers will rise gradually".

Assad fled Syria last weekend following an 11-day rebel offensive led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), bringing to a dramatic end more than 50 years of brutal Assad clan rule.

His fall comes over 13 years into the civil war sparked by Assad's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011.

The war has killed........

© International Business Times