Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement Sunday, expressing support for a peaceful transition of power in Syria after the regime of President Basha al-Assad fell to Syrian rebels.
He said during that time the United States will closely monitor the actions of rebel leaders.
“After 14 years of conflict, the Syrian people finally have reason for hope,” Blinken said.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Turkish Minister of National Defense Yasar Guler, about the ongoing situation in Syria, the Pentagon announced.
In a statement on Sunday, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder reported that the call focused on evaluating the potential aftermath of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s apparent abdication following a lightning offensive that took the capital of Damascus.
This potentially leaves behind a power vacuum that could send the country into chaos, particularly as tensions in the region are already high amid Israel’s ongoing conflict in Gaza.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that on Dec. 8 it carried out strikes against the ISIS terrorist group in Syria following the apparent abdication of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In a statement posted to X, 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.”
President Joe Biden addressed the nation on Sunday from the White House, 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 also “a moment of risk and uncertainty.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family have received asylum in Russia, according to Russian state media reports.
“Assad and his family have arrived in Moscow. Russia, for humanitarian reasons, has granted them asylum,” reported the state-run Russian News Agency TASS, citing a source in the Kremlin.
The announcement was made after Assad was forced to flee Syria following a lightning rebel takeover of the nation’s capital city of Damascus, with rebels declaring victory Sunday morning.
President-elect Donald Trump sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin following the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria after Islamist opposition fighters captured Damascus. He called for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine.
“Assad is gone. He has fled his country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on the morning of Dec. 8. “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place.”
The incoming president also said that Moscow had “lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.”
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.
The reason Israel seized the territory is because “we have to take action against possible threats” caused by the power vacuum left by the Assad regime’s collapse, he said.
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 his 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.
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 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.
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 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.
"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 late Saturday night, after rebels took Damascus.
President-elect Donald Trump said on Truth Social early Sunday morning, "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."
The United States will maintain its presence in eastern Syria and will take 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.
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 which 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 assailants had rummaged through furniture and documents inside the building and damaged some windows.
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.
Crowds gathered in Syria's Damascus on Sunday to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government with chants, prayers and the occasional gunfire after opposition fighters entered the capital following a stunning advance.
Brimming with excitement, 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.
Hundreds of Syrians took to the streets to celebrate the fall of 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 were waving flags emblazoned with “Free Syria” while others flocked in motorcades, German news agency dpa reported.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Bashar Assad had left Syria after negotiations with rebel groups, and gave 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 events in Syria “with extreme concern."
It also said Russian troops stationed in Syria have been put on high alert and that as of early afternoon Sunday, there was “no serious threat” to the security of Russia’s military bases there.
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.
Syrian insurgents, led by terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), announced on Dec. 8 that Damascus is “now free of Assad.”
“We declare the city of Damascus free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad,” a post on Telegram reads. “After 50 years of oppression under Baath rule, and 13 years of crime, tyranny and displacement ... we announce the end of this dark era and the beginning of a new era for Syria.”
The rebel forces also said that President Bashar al-Assad had fled Damascus.