Daniel B. Shapiro, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said the U.S. presence was “solely to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and has nothing to do with other aspects of this conflict,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

“We call on all parties in Syria to protect civilians, particularly those from Syria’s minority communities to respect international military norms and to work to achieve a resolution to include the political settlement,” Shapiro said.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman and adviser to the prime minister, Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari, says participants of the emergency meeting of foreign ministers and top officials from eight countries with interests in Syria, agreed on the need “to engage all parties on the ground and be inclusive in our engagement.”

The late Saturday meeting, hosted by Qatar, included Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Turkey.

Syrian state TV briefly continued its programs, with an anchorman calling on all employees at the station to return to work adding that they are safe.

“This is Damascus, the capital of Syria where the gates of freedom have opened for the first time in many years. This is a historic day in Syria’s modern history” the anchorman said Sunday morning.

Crowds gathered in Syria's Damascus on Sunday to celebrate the fall of Bashar Assad’s government with chants, prayers and the occasional gunfire after opposition fighters entered the capital following a stunning advance.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian opposition war monitor, said Assad took a flight from Damascus and left early Sunday. There was no immediate official statement from the Syrian government and Assad's whereabouts remain unknown.

Islamist-led rebels declared that they have taken Damascus in a lightning offensive on Sunday, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria.

Islamist-led rebels announced Sunday they had started entering the Syrian capital Damascus, where residents told AFP they heard heavy gunfire.

A war monitor said late Saturday that Islamist-led rebels had entered the strategic city of Homs, on the way towards Damascus where Syria's embattled government said it was setting up an impenetrable security cordon.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called for "political dialogue" between the Syrian government and opposition groups after a lightning offensive by rebel forces.

Turkey's foreign minister will meet with his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Doha on Saturday to try to find a solution to the renewed fighting in Syria and avoid chaos on its doorstep.

The three countries have been partners since 2017 in the Astana process seeking to end the civil war in Syria even if they have supported opposite sides on the battlefield.

The prime minister of Qatar says he has seen new momentum in Gaza ceasefire efforts since the U.S. presidential election, with the incoming Trump administration seeking an end to the conflict before it takes office.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a key mediator in the ceasefire efforts, declined to give specifics of the negotiations but told an international conference in Doha that the gaps between the sides are not large.