Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad fled to Moscow and received asylum from his longtime ally, Russian media said, hours after a stunning rebel advance seized control of Damascus and ended his family's 50 years of iron rule.

Thousands of Syrians poured into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire and waved the revolutionary flag in scenes that recalled the early days of the Arab Spring uprising, before a brutal crackdown and the rise of an insurgency plunged the country into a nearly 14-year civil war.

For Iran's theocratic government, it keeps getting worse.

Its decadeslong strategy of building an "Axis of Resistance" supporting militant groups and proxies around the region is falling apart. First came the crushing Israeli campaign in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Iranian-backed Hamas.

Israel has struck suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets in Syria in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile actors, the foreign minister said Monday.

Syrian rebels reached Damascus over the weekend and overthrew President Bashar Assad's government following nearly 14 years of civil war, raising hopes for a more peaceful future but also concerns about a potential security vacuum in the country, which is still split among armed groups.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to take to the witness stand Tuesday for the first time in his trial on corruption allegations, a pivotal point in the drawn-out proceedings that comes as the leader wages war in Gaza and faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes charges.

At home, Netanyahu is on trial for accusations of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate affairs. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing, but his appearance on the witness stand will be a low point in his decades-long political career, standing in contrast to the image of a sophisticated, respected leader he has tried to cultivate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he had ordered the Israeli military to "seize" a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone between the Israeli- and Syrian-controlled Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said Sunday it had deployed forces to a demilitarized buffer zone in southwest Syria abutting the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after Damascus fell to rebel forces.

Israel struck Syrian army weapons depots on Sunday near the Mazzeh military airport, on the outskirts of Damascus, a war monitor told AFP.

Iran's embassy in Syria was "attacked" on Sunday, Iranian state TV said, after Islamist-led rebels declared the fall of Tehran ally Bashar al-Assad following a sweeping offensive that culminated in Damascus.

Islamist-led rebels toppled Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in a lightning offensive that a U.N. envoy called "a watershed moment" for the nation marred by civil war.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed understanding for the relief Syrian people felt after the fall of Bashar Assad’s government, but warned that “the country must not now fall into the hands of other radicals.”

“Several hundred thousand Syrians have been killed in the civil war, millions have fled,” Baerbock said in a statement emailed by her office Sunday. “Assad has murdered, tortured and used poison gas against his own people. He must finally be held accountable for this.”