Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Bashar al-Assad had left Syria after negotiations with rebel groups, after giving “instructions” to “transfer power peacefully.”
Crowds gathered in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Sunday to celebrate the fall of Assad’s government with chants, prayers, and the occasional volley of gunfire after opposition fighters entered the capital in the wake of a stunning advance.
It was the first time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018, when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a yearslong siege.
The rapidly developing events have shaken the region. Lebanon said it was closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for one that links Beirut with Damascus. Jordan also closed a border crossing with Syria.
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Centcom Announces Strikes on ISIS in Syria
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it carried out strikes against the ISIS terrorist group in Syria on Dec. 8 following the apparent abdication of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In a statement posted to the X social media platform, CENTCOM announced that it “conducted dozens of precision airstrikes targeting known ISIS camps and operatives in central Syria [on] Dec. 8.”
The statement said that the strikes—targeting “ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps”— came in order to ensure that the terror group could not “seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria.”
There are currently no indications that any civilian casualties resulted from the strikes, the statement said.
“There should be no doubt—we will not allow ISIS to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla. “All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support ISIS in any way.”
The strikes took place after a lightning offensive by rebel forces within Syria captured the capital city of Damascus, forcing Assad and his family to flee to Russia—and potentially marking the end of the family’s decades-long hold over the nation.
While the apparent deposition of Assad has been met with support by many in the West, it also raises the specter of a descent into chaos, which could exacerbate the already flaring tensions in the region amid the ongoing conflict in neighboring Israel.
Israel Releases Images of Work on New Barrier With Syria
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it was reinforcing a barrier along its border with Syria as part of its “enhanced preparedness” in the area following the fall of the Assad regime.
Israel released images of the construction, which showed bulldozers digging what appeared to be a trench. The IDF said in a statement that the barrier was named “New East.”
Over the weekend, the Israeli military sent additional troops to the Golan Heights to bolster Israel’s presence along the border with Syria.
US to Work With Partners in Syria to Manage Risk: Biden
The United States will work with partners and stakeholders in Syria to help seize the opportunity and manage the risk, President Joe Biden said on Sunday after rebel fighters overthrew Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In remarks made at the White House, Biden said the United States will support Syria’s neighbors through the period of transition and will assess the words and actions of rebel groups.
Biden said the United States does not officially know of Assad’s whereabouts but noted reports that he had fled to Moscow. He said Assad “should be held accountable.”
Biden said Syria is in a period of risk and uncertainty and that it is the first time in years that neither Russia, Iran, nor the Hezbollah terrorist organization held a significantly influential role in Syria.
“For years, the main backers of Assad have been Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia. But over the last week, their support collapsed—all three of them—because all three of them are far weaker today than they were when I took office,” said Biden, who became president in 2021.
Biden said U.S. forces on Sunday conducted a dozen precision strikes within Syria targeting camps and operatives of the ISIS terrorist group.
“It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country. It’s also a moment of risk and uncertainty,” Biden said.
“As we all turn to the question of what comes next, the United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risk,” he said.
Biden Calls Assad’s Fall a ‘Fundamental Act of Justice’
President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the White House on Sunday, praising the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria while expressing caution over the immediate uncertainty for the country and the region.
“At long last, the Assad regime has fallen,” Biden said. “This regime brutalized, tortured, and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. A fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice.”
Biden described the fall of the regime as “a moment of historic opportunity” for Syrians, but said it was also “a moment of risk and uncertainty.”
Assad was forced to flee Syria after 13 years of civil war, bringing an end to his family’s more than half-century reign over the country.
The United States has nearly 900 forces deployed in northeastern and eastern Syria.
Biden said that the United States will continue to protect U.S. soldiers from any threats while maintaining its mission against the ISIS terrorist group in eastern Syria, including the security of detention facilities where ISIS fighters are held as prisoners.
Biden noted that the United States is “clear-eyed about the fact that ISIS will try to take advantage of any vacuum.”
His administration will engage with the Syrian groups to help them in establishing a new government for an independent and sovereign Syria, the president said.
Before ending his speech, Biden reiterated his pledge to bring back Austin Tice, an American journalist who was abducted in Syria in 2012.
“We believe he’s alive,” Biden said. “We have to identify where he is.”
Assad and His Family Are in Moscow, Say Russian News Agencies
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and his family have arrived in Russia and have been granted asylum by the Russian authorities, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, citing a Kremlin source.
The Interfax news agency quoted the unnamed source as saying that, “President Assad of Syria has arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted them [him and his family] asylum on humanitarian grounds.”
Netanyahu Says Israeli Forces Secured Buffer Zone in Golan Heights After Syria’s Assad Toppled
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s military has taken over a buffer zone in the Golan Heights that was established decades ago, after Syrian opposition fighters ended the rule of President Bashar al-Assad’s decades-long reign.
In a statement released by video on Sunday morning, Netanyahu said that the agreement, hashed out in 1974 by Israel and former leader Hafez al-Assad’s regime, “collapsed” on Saturday night because the “Syrian army abandoned its positions.”
He said the reason Israel seized the territory is because the IDF had to act against any possible threats caused by the power vacuum left by the Assad regime’s collapse.
“We gave the Israeli army the order to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel,” the prime minister added. “This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.”
Netanyahu said Assad’s downfall was a “historic day” for the region, adding that the new situation in Syria “offers great opportunity but also is fraught with significant dangers.”
His announcement was delivered in the Golan Heights.
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Biden Meets His National Security Team to Discuss Syria
President Joe Biden is meeting with his national security staff Sunday to get an update on the situation in Syria, the White House said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad left the country after rebels seized control of Damascus.
“We declare the city of Damascus free of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” the military operations command for the terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced early Sunday morning.
Soon after the rebels took Damascus on Saturday night, the White House issued a brief statement saying the president was monitoring developments.
“President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners,” the White House stated.
President-elect Donald Trump reacted to the situation on Saturday, saying that Washington should not get involved.
The United States has nearly 900 service members deployed in northeastern and eastern Syria.
“We remain fully prepared to defend and protect our personnel and assets deployed to the region, to include our forces deployed to Syria that are singularly focused on the enduring defeat of ISIS and which remain essential to ensuring that ISIS can never again resurge in Syria,” Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Dec. 2.
Israeli Military Issues Warning to Residents of Five Villages in Southern Syria
The Israeli military has issued a warning to the residents of five villages and towns in southern Syria to stay inside their homes for their safety. “The fighting in your area is forcing the IDF to act,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman said on X.
Syrians Stroll Through Assad’s Palaces, Loot Furniture and Ornaments
Groups of Syrians strolled through the palaces of President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday following his ouster, wandering from room to room, posing for photographs, while some took furniture, other items, and ornaments.
Video obtained by Reuters showed people entering the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace as children ran through the grand rooms and men slid a large trunk across the ornate floor.
Several men carried smart chairs over their shoulders. In a storeroom, cupboards had been ransacked and objects strewn across the floor.
Video of another palace, the Muhajreen Palace, verified by Reuters, showed groups of men and women walking across a white marble floor and through tall wooden doors. A man carried a vase and a large cabinet stood empty with its doors ajar.
Netanyahu Says Fall of Assad Is Result of Israeli Blows to Hezbollah, Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday hailed the ouster of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad as a “historic day” that followed the blows delivered by Israel against Assad’s supporters, namely Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
On a visit to an observation point in the Israeli Golan Heights overseeing Syria, Netanyahu said he had ordered Israeli forces to seize areas in the U.N.-monitored buffer zone with Syria to ensure Israel’s security.
“We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, who accompanied Netanyahu, said the Israeli military deployed forces in the buffer zone “to ensure the protection of all Israeli communities.”
British Prime Minister Welcomes End of Assad’s Rule
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the end of Assad’s rule as he called for peace and the protection of civilians.
“The Syrian people have suffered under Assad’s barbaric regime for too long and we welcome his departure,” Starmer said.
He said the UK was focused on a political solution to restore peace and stability.
“We call on all sides to protect civilians and minorities and ensure essential aid can reach the most vulnerable in the coming hours and days,” he said.
EU Top Diplomat Welcomes Bashar Assad’s Ouster
The European Union’s top diplomat welcomed the fall of Bashar Assad and said that the collapse of his rule underlines how weak his supporters in Moscow and Tehran have become.
“The end of Assad’s dictatorship is a positive and long-awaited development,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas posted on X.
“Our priority is to ensure security in the region. I will work with all the constructive partners, in Syria and the region,” said Kallas, who took over as the 27-nation bloc’s top diplomat last week.
Biden, Trump React
“President Biden and his team are closely monitoring the extraordinary events in Syria and staying in constant touch with regional partners,” the White House said in a statement.
President-elect Donald Trump said on Truth Social: “Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. … Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success.”
US Will Remain in Eastern Syria, Pentagon Says
The United States will maintain its presence in eastern Syria and will take any measures necessary to prevent a resurgence of the ISIS terrorist group, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Daniel Shapiro said on Sunday.
Speaking hours after Syrian rebels announced they had toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government, Shapiro called on all parties to protect civilians, particularly minorities, and to respect international norms.
“We are aware that the chaotic and dynamic circumstances on the ground in Syria could give ISIS space to find the ability to become active, to plan external operations, and we’re determined to work with those partners to continue to degrade their capabilities,” he told the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain’s capital.
“[We’re determined] to ensure [ISIS’s] enduring defeat, to ensure the secure detention of ISIS fighters and the repatriation of displaced persons,” Shapiro added.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which spearheaded the rebel advances across western Syria, was formerly an al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Nusra Front until its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, severed ties with the global jihadist movement in 2016.
Western governments, which have shunned the Assad-led state for years, must decide how to deal with a new administration in which HTS looks set to have influence. HTS is a globally designated terrorist group.
Iranian Embassy Stormed in Damascus
Iran’s embassy in the Syrian capital was stormed by rebels on Sunday following their capture of Damascus and the fall of Iran-allied Bashar al-Assad, Iranian state TV reported.
“It is said that the Iranian embassy was stormed alongside nearby stores by an armed group different from the group now controlling [most of] Syria,” Iranian state TV said, referring to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group that spearheaded the rebel advances across western Syria.
Footage from inside the embassy’s premises was shared by Saudi Arabia’s al-Arabiya channel, showing that rebels had rummaged through furniture and documents inside the building and damaged some windows.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Sunday that Iranian diplomats had vacated the embassy in the early morning—prior to any assault.
France Welcomes Fall of Assad Regime
The French Foreign Affairs ministry said France welcomes the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government “after more than 13 years of violent repression against its own people.”
The ministry said in a statement: “The Syrian people have suffered too much. Bashar Assad has bled dry [the] country, emptied of a large part of its people who, if not forced into exile, have been massacred, tortured, and bombarded with chemical weapons by the regime and its allies.”
France also called for a peaceful political transition that respects the diversity of the Syrian people and protects civilians and minorities. It called on its international partners to help the Syrian people move towards “reconciliation and reconstruction,” saying France is ready to “play its full part” in the process.
Syrians Celebrate End of Assad’s Rule
Crowds gathered in Syria’s Damascus on Sunday to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government with chants, prayers, and the occasional volley of gunfire after opposition fighters entered the capital following a stunning advance.
People flocked to Ummayed Square in the heart of the Syrian capital to mark the fall of Assad’s government.
The square houses the building of the Ministry of Defense.
Men on the streets and some riding in the back of pickup trucks fired celebratory shots as plumes of smoke could be seen in the distance. Some waved the green flag that represented Syria’s uprising against the Assad dynasty, the first such instance in well over a decade before the mass protests spiraled into civil war.
A few miles away, Syrians stormed the presidential palace, taking down portraits of Assad from the palace’s guest quarters where the fallen president hosted heads of state.
Syrians in Berlin Celebrate Fall of Assad Regime
Hundreds of Syrians took to the streets of Berlin to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Some cheered and rejoiced in front of a Syrian bakery on the German capital’s Sonnenallee Boulevard in the neighborhood of Neukoelln, famous for its many Arabic stores, restaurants, and coffee shops.
People waved flags emblazoned with “Free Syria” while others flocked in motorcades, German dpa news agency reported.
Many of Neukoelln’s inhabitants originally come from Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians fled the civil war in their home country and reached Germany by crossing the Mediterranean on flimsy rubber boats and trekking through the Balkans, often traveling for days and weeks on foot.
Opposition Forces Announce Curfew in Damascus
The command of the Syrian armed opposition says it will impose Sunday a curfew in Damascus, starting at 4 p.m. local time till 5 a.m. on Monday.
The Military Operations Administration, which posted the decision on Telegram, did not give a reason for the curfew.
Russia Says Assad Left Syria
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Bashar Assad had left Syria after negotiations with rebel groups and after giving “instructions” to “transfer power peacefully.”
In a post on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday, the ministry said Moscow had not directly participated in these talks. It also said it has been following the “dramatic events” in Syria “with extreme concern.”
It said Russian troops stationed in Syria have been put on high alert and that as of early Sunday afternoon, there was “no serious threat” to the security of Russia’s military bases there.
Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, teaming up with Iran to allow Assad’s government to fight armed opposition groups and reclaim control over most of the country.
While Russia now concentrates the bulk of its military resources in Ukraine, it has maintained a military foothold in Syria and keeps troops at its bases there.
UN Envoy for Syria Expresses Hope but Warns of Immense Challenges
The U.N. envoy for Syria says the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad has created an opportunity to address the country’s deep problems and create a brighter future after years of conflict. But he says “immense” challenges remain.
Geir Pederson told reporters that the changes in Syria now raise hope for millions of refugees, internally displaced, political prisoners, and families whose loved ones have disappeared.
“Today we look forward to the cautious hope for the opening of a new time for the peace, reconciliation, dignity, and inclusion of all Syrians,” he said.
He said the U.N. was closely monitoring the situation on the ground and urging all groups to avoid violence, protect civilians, and respect human rights.
Epoch Times reporters Emel Akan, Joseph Lord, and Jack Phillips, The Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.