New leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said the authorities would “absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control”.

But a spokesman for the Southern Operations Room, a coalition of armed groups from the southern province of Daraa formed on December 6 to help topple Assad, said the alliance did not agree.

“We’re not convinced by the idea of dissolving armed groups,” said its spokesman Naseem Abu Orra.

“We’re an organised force in the south… headed by officers who defected” from Assad’s army, he told AFP in Daraa’s town of Bosra.

“We can integrate the defence ministry as a pre-organised entity… We have weapons, heavy equipment,” he said.

Abu Orra said the group, led by local leader Ahmed al-Awdeh, included thousands of men, without any Islamist affiliation.

Awdeh has good relations with former Assad ally Russia, as well as neighbouring Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, sources close to his group said.