Outgoing US President Joe Biden said the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria is a historic opportunity for the people of the country who have been brutalised, tortured and killed by his government over the past half a century. 


Speaking at the White House hours after rebel groups took over the country, Biden said the fall of the Assad regime is a fundamental act of justice, reported PTI. 


“After 13 years of civil war in Syria and more than half a century of brutal authoritarian rule by Bashar Assad and his father before him, rebel forces have forced Assad to resign his office and flee the country. We're not sure where he is, but there's word that he's in Moscow. At long last, the Assad regime has fallen,” Biden said.


“This regime brutalised, tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice. It's a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country,” he said.


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Biden also pointed out that it is also a moment of risk and uncertainty adding the US will support Syria's neighbours including Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Israel, should any threat arise from Syria during this period of transition.


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Assad regime was itself to blame for the collapse fo its refusal to engage in a "credible political process" and its reliance on Russian and Iranian support. 


Blinken said the US will "closely monitor" developments in the country and will assess the rebel leaders by their actions instead of words. 


"During this transitional period, the Syrian people have every right to demand the preservation of state institutions, the resumption of key services, and the protection of vulnerable communities," he said. 


To the west of the country, Israel said its military has temporarily seized control of a demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights as Syrian troops left their positions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria had "collapsed" with the rebel takeover of the country.


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Netanyahu said he had ordered the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to enter the buffer zone and "commanding positions nearby" from the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan.


According to a UK-based war monitor, the Syrian troops had left their positions in Quneitra province, part of which lies inside the buffer zone, on Saturday.


Within the country, people are celebrating the fall of the Assad regime as crowds of people waved the Syrian revolutionary flag and pulled down statues and portraits of the ousted president and his father, Hafez. 


Celebratory gunfire and car horns echoed the streets of Damascus on Sunday as rebels advanced to the capital, reported The Guardian. 


Families reunited with their loved ones long lost to the dark of the regime's notorious prison system while others ransacked the presidential palace.