Hello and welcome to NewsHour.
It's coming to you today live from Damascus and London.
Celia Hatton's in the BBC studios in London.
You'll hear from her a bit later.
I'm Tim Franks and I'm in the Syrian capital because five months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad,
five months after Syrians escaped the clutches of a choking family dynasty turned dictatorship.
Many Syrians seem caught between hope and fear.
They have a new president who, for many, is something of an enigma,
this one-time militant Islamist rebel leader, Ahmed al-Shara.
They've also, in recent weeks, seen some terrible sectarian bloodletting.
That's led to fears here that this country could fracture once more,
tear itself back into conflict with all that that might mean for the entire Middle East.
Over today and tomorrow,
we'll be ranging widely over some of the biggest issues facing Syria
as it tries to stagger to its feet after years of civil war,
terrifying repression and a shattered economy.
We're going to begin with the most recent events,
the violence which enveloped neighbourhoods close to Damascus with large communities from the Druze minority.
To start with then,
we're going to head back to last Wednesday and the neighbourhood where dozens were killed.