An Albanian has received a high position in the Syrian army

The new Syrian authorities have appointed some foreign fighters, including an Albanian, to high positions in the country's armed forces, according to Reuters.

Among them is Abdul Jashari, an ethnic Albanian fighter also known as Abu Qatada al-Albani, who has been appointed as a colonel, a military source told Reuters.

Jashari is also the leader of the Albanian jihadist group Xhemati Alban and was declared a terrorist by the U.S. Treasury in 2016.

The Reuters' source says that out of a total of almost 50 military roles announced by the Defence Ministry on Sunday, at least six had gone to foreigners.

Thousands of Sunni Muslim foreigners joined Syria's rebels early in the 13-year civil war to fight against the rule of Bashar al-Assad and the Iran-backed Shi'ite militias who supported him, giving the conflict a sectarian overtone.

Some foreign fighters formed their own armed groups while others joined established formations such as Islamic State as it rampaged across Iraq and Syria, briefly declaring a so-called caliphate before being routed by U.S. and Iran-backed forces.

Other groups of foreign jihadists joined HTS, which disavowed previous links to al Qaeda and Islamic State and fought bloody battles against them before going on to spearhead the lightning advance that toppled Assad on December 8.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the HTS-leader-turned de facto ruler of Syria, has purged dozens of foreign jihadi fighters as part of a campaign to Syrianise and moderate his group.

In remarks broadcast on Sunday, Sharaa said that the new Syria "cannot be run by the mentality of groups and militias."

Syria's new rulers, drawn mainly from HTS, have indicated that foreign fighters and their families may be given Syrian citizenship and be allowed to stay in the country because of their contributions to the fight against Assad.

The Defence Ministry on Sunday announced 49 appointments to the army that included leaders of key Syrian armed factions.

Among them were several foreign fighters, three of whom received the rank of brigadier general, and at least three received the rank of colonel, a Syrian military source said.

Chinese Uyghur militant Abdulaziz Dawood Khudaberdi, also known as Zahid and the commander of the separatist Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) forces in Syria, was appointed as a brigadier general.

Two other Uyghur fighters, Mawlan Tarsoun Abdussamad and Abdulsalam Yasin Ahmad, were given the rank of colonel.

Turkish citizen Omar Mohammed Jaftashi and Jordanian citizen Abdul Rahman Hussein al-Khatib were also made brigadier-generals, the Syrian military source and the HTS source said.