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Syrian Rebels Takes Damascus and Assad Flee Syria; President Biden Offer Plan to Support Syria; Assad Family Granted Asylum in Moscow; U.S. Strikes ISIS Targets in Syria; Netanyahu Orders Israeli Military to Seize Syria Buffer Zone; NYPD Releases New Photos of Suspect in CEO Shooting Aired 5-6p ET

Aired December 08, 2024 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[17:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: -- when I say we will miss you. You're not only a good friend but a colleague and an outstanding journalist and I know whatever your next challenges and adventures will be, they will be excitingly wonderful. And we just hope you will stay in touch with all of us and we'll follow you, of course, on Instagram as you pursue your next challenge. Thank you for everything you've done for us. It is always been a pleasure for me personally, and for all of our colleagues to work together with you. Appreciate it verry, very much. (Inaudible)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Likewise, Wolf. It's been (inaudible).

BLITZER: Okay. Of course, thank you. Alisyn Camerota, thank you very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I'll see you back here tomorrow night 6:00 p.m. Eastern in "The Situation Room." "CNN Newsroom" continues with Jessica Dean right now.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the "CNN Newsroom" and I'm Jessica Dean in New York. The brutal half-century Assad family regime in Syria has ended. Rebels have taken hold of the capital of Damascus, one of several major cities. They took control of it in lightning advance. Bashar al-Assad fled the presidential palace. That residence, a symbol of his gruesome dictatorship, has been burned and ransacked.

At this moment, Assad and his family are in Moscow after being granted asylum in Russia. That's according to a source. And the entire world now waits to see what happens in Syria. President Biden declaring the U.S. will engage with Syrian groups to establish a transition. U.S. Central Command, meanwhile, saying U.S. planes have struck over 75 ISIS targets in Syria today. That is part of an ongoing mission, which has hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in that region.

CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh has more on Assad's fall from power.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Decades of savage, horrific rule, over in a matter of days. Thousands of Syrians celebrated in the streets of Damascus after rebel forces advanced on the capital early Sunday morning, declaring it free of President Bashar al-Assad.

UNKNOWN: We announce to you from the Syrian News Channel the victory of the great Syrian revolution, after 13 years of patience and sacrifice. We won the bet and toppled the criminal Assad regime.

WALSH (voice-over): Facing crumbling resistance from regime forces, rebels launched a stunning, lightning offensive. Russia undermining its long-term ally by announcing he had fled the country and was granted asylum in Moscow.

Hours of jubilation followed as civilians and rebels entered the presidential palace, looting furniture with children running about, a sign of how every day the suffering he inflicted had been. Some even touring the presidential kitchen in a land where starvation was once a weapon. What would you like one woman says while filming? Our people are hungry. Take whatever you want.

Traces of Assad were being dismantled across the country. This statue of the man who had children gassed in a gutter basement 11 years ago toppled in the eastern city of Tartus. His image torn down from buildings in Damascus and on top of the gates of Homs city centre. Symbolically, where protesters tore apart his image more than a decade ago in a scene that defined the civil war's early days.

Inspired by the seismic shifts of the Arab Spring, Syrians rose up in 2011 demanding democracy but were met with live rounds and eventually jet planes, chemical weapons and mass executions and torture. Hundreds of thousands were killed, millions displaced. As rebels swept through the capital on Sunday, images surfaced of prisoners being released from the notorious Sadnaya prison, from which so few emerged. Dubbed the Human Slaughterhouse by Amnesty International.

The militant figure leading this rebel offensive is Abu Mohammed al- Jilani, seen here prostrating in prayer upon entering Damascus. Once affiliated with Al Qaeda, Jilani has been suggesting he has matured from his extremist roots, though there are deep concerns about what kind of new Syria may now emerge. At one of the oldest mosques in the world in Damascus, he was received with applause and jeers as he held total victory.

ABU MOHAMMED AL-JILANI, SYRIAN REBEL LEADER (through translation): This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation. This new triumph, my brothers, marks a new chapter in the history of the region.

WALSH (voice-over): Without doubt a new chapter, but with the joy of change comes anxiety at the future and surely a reckoning of sorts. The decades of horror past that could mire the hope of the days ahead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[17:04:57]

DEAN: All right, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much for that reporting. Also tonight, CNN getting a rare look inside Damascus. Our Clarissa Ward, the first Western journalist to report from Syria since Bashar al-Assad's fall, takes us through the city just hours after he fled. She spoke with Wolf Blitzer shortly after arriving in the Syrian capital. Here's that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I have to say the moment is just utterly surreal. For those of us who have been covering this story for more than 14 years, it never seemed possible that it would end like this. I want to say that the streets are incredibly calm, incredibly quiet, but you can see just behind me, a few cars have been going through the street.

There's actually a curfew in place from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. That is a security measure, of course. There has been some looting in Damascus earlier on, some chaotic scenes. And so as a precaution, as we saw in Aleppo, they have put this curfew into place. I want to show you though, Wolf, a clip of the moment that we cross the border because this is a border that I crossed many times when I used to live in Lebanon, when I used to cover Syria at the very, very beginning of the uprising.

And the contrast from what it was and what we experienced tonight is just startling. So take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

So we're just crossing now into Syria. It's astonishing to see. It's absolutely empty. The border points before there would have been soldiers, there would have been border guards. Now there is absolutely nobody from the Syrian regime. Some friendly people letting us through. And honestly, the last time I came down this road was back in 2011. I was leaving Syria. I had been undercover in Damascus posing as a tourist. Went back into Lebanon. And I never imagined this moment would come when we would be driving through this border with no one from the regime to stop us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

The scene at that border crossing as we passed through it, again, it was already dark, already past curfew, very, very quiet and just nothing like we've seen it before. The only real evidence we saw, Wolf, of any struggle to finally take Damascus, to finally oust Bashar al-Assad was a tank in the road below a torn poster of president or I should say former president Bashar al-Assad.

And Wolf, my cameraman Scott McWinnie, just found this on the ground literally as we were listening to that clip. This is the old flag of the Syrian regime, which has two green stars. The rebel's flag has three green stars, but this one has now been literally, we just found it on the floor. I guess a real moment where you see how much things have changed just in the past 24 hours.

(END VIDEOTAPE) DEAN: Incredible reporting from our Clarissa Ward there. Thank you so

much for that. And our coverage of Syria continues now with Ambassador James Jeffrey. He's a former U.S. envoy for Syrian engagement and also the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Turkey. Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being here with us.

JAMES JEFFREY, FORMER U.S. ENVOY FOR SYRIA: Thank you for having me.

DEAN: We spoke to you last night as this was all unfolding. And now here we are, roughly 24 hours, almost exactly 24 hours later, and the Assad regime has officially fallen. I just first want to get your thoughts on what comes next for Syria.

JEFFREY: Well, first of all, there's going to have to be a period of internal stabilization that will be very messy. I've been involved in about a half a dozen (inaudible) in the last 50 years. They're never clean, they're never orderly. We just saw one in southern Lebanon that's still messy, and this is going to be far messier. It's a far bigger country.

That said, all of the parties are talking. Our Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces partners are in conversation with Hayat Tahrir al- Sham, the organization Jilani leads. He's in conversation, of course, with the Rump government in Damascus under Prime Minister or ex-Prime Minister Jalali, and various other forces are coalescing. They're getting a lot of external support.

President Biden just came out to underline how important this success has been for the people and for the region and urging that everybody work together and avoid going after each other.

[17:09:56]

We have to watch this carefully, but nonetheless, that is the basic worries that we always have even when a situation turns out very well. This is good for the Syrian people. It is good for the region. It is bad for Russia and Iran, thus. good for the rest of the world.

DEAN: And the U.S. believes there are links between Syria's rebel coalition and ISIS. And I know we heard from Jake Sullivan yesterday, we've heard from the president. One of their main concerns is making sure ISIS does not reestablish a foothold, a stronger foothold there in Syria. How does this further complicate this new government? And how do you see that piece of it playing out?

JEFFREY: It's a complication but I would rather be dealing and I was an envoy dealing on the political side with the Islamic State for two years. I would rather be dealing with those guys than dealing with the Iranian access of proxies throughout the region, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. That's a far more difficult problem as we've all seen over the last 14 months.

So even if there some links, we can deal with them. First of all, as you just reported, our Central Command has just bombed the hell out of the Islamic State positions in the Bada'a Desert. Meanwhile, the Israelis have struck suspected chemical weapons sites that the Assad regime may have left behind. So there's a lot of attention on this.

The other thing is, Jilani and his movement, HTS, fought the Islamic State, and while he is officially still on the terrorist list, we haven't seen any what we would consider terrorist activities out of that movement for a good deal of time, for four, five, six, seven, eight years. And in fact, we indirectly -- we didn't work with him, but we were supporting the people, some three million refugees that were under his control in the northwest of the country and we were very appreciative of the efforts he was doing to stop Assad, Russia, and Iran's advance.

DEAN: Do you expect to see more U.S. bombings and airstrikes like the ones we saw today?

JEFFREY: Oh, absolutely. It's been hard to fully eliminate the Islamic State in Syria, but I think that was partially because of the inept nature of the Syrian army. I think that with the Syrian Democratic Forces, our Kurdish allies who've moved, in some cases, south of the Euphrates, And with these opposition forces unleashed on the Islamic State, along with our bombing campaign and the usual kind of raids, special operations people do, I don't think they're going to do very well.

DEAN: And you touched on this in the beginning of our conversation, but just in terms of what this means for Iran, what this means for Russia, it's certainly very bad news for both of them.

JEFFREY: Yeah, but in a different way. Russia's goals in the Middle East were relatively limited, mainly focused on Syria in preserving a friendly government for the end of having a naval and an air base in northwestern Syria to project in a very limited way power in the region. With Iran, it was very different. Iran has had since 1979, the revolution, a goal of essentially taking over a hegemony of the Middle East working through proxies, most of them but not all, Shia Muslims in countries such as Iraq, Syria, of course, Lebanon, Gaza, I mentioned, and Yemen, and putting the rest of the region under pressure.

That all has been turned on its head. Hamas has been basically destroyed, Hezbollah heavily defeated, Iran, of course, lost heavily in its missile and air war with Israel in the last few months. And now, the centerpiece of this whole thing, the link of what we used to call the Shia Crescent between Tehran, across Iraq, Syria, into Beirut, Lebanon, that has been taken away from Iran. And this is huge.

DEAN: All right, Ambassador James Jeffrey, we're going to leave it there, but thank you so much for your thoughts on this. We really appreciate it.

JEFFREY: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, more of our breaking news coverage as President Biden lays out the next steps his administration will take. after the fall of Assad's government in Syria. Plus, new developments on where Assad has fled. We're live in Moscow where the Russian government has granted him asylum. You're in the "CNN Newsroom." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:00]

DEAN: President Biden says the fall of the Assad regime is a moment of both risk and opportunity for the people of Syria. Senior White House correspondent Kayla Tausche is joining us now. And Kayla, the U.S. considers the Syrian rebel leader a terrorist group and, or a terrorist rather, and believes many parts of the coalition remain with solid links to ISIS. What is the administration thinking through right now?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are two critical concerns that the administration has. One is to make sure that no group, HTS or another group, gets access to the biological and chemical weapons that the Assad regime had under its care. A senior administration official left no question that that is a high priority for the administration and also said that they have high fidelity in this person's words where those weapons are located.

But the other priority for the administration right now is to make sure that ISIS does not exploit this power vacuum as a way to seek a resurgence.

[17:19:58]

In the words of this senior administration official, these guys want to reconstitute. To that end, the U.S. just today launched 140 munitions targeting 75 targets at a large ISIS gathering in central Syria. And they believe that mission was quite successful.

It was designed to send a message to ISIS, a threat rather, not to see the overturning of the Assad regime as an opportunity for it to come back. How that plays out still remains to be seen, but one big question for the Biden administration, is who really takes power now? In their eyes, it is not a foregone conclusion that it is HTS at the end of the day who takes the reins of this country that's been at war for more than a decade. And President Biden said, ultimately, it's up to the Syrian people. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And I might say it again, sovereign Syria, with a new constitution, a new government that serves all Syrians. This process will be determined by the Syrian people themselves. And the United States will do whatever we can to support them, including through humanitarian relief to help restore Syria after more than a decade of war and generations of brutality by the Assad family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: President Biden said the U.S. supports the United Nations brokerage transition process, and the senior administration official says that they are in touch with many opposition groups across the country. Jess? DEAN: All right, Kayla Tausche at the White House for tonight. Thank

you very much. A source telling CNN, Bashar al-Assad and his family are now in Moscow where they have been granted asylum. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has been a long-time ally of the Assad regime, providing the Syrian government with air power and other military support for nearly a decade. Our Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow. Fred, what more do we know about Assad's relocation there to Russia?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Russian sources, Jessica, are now telling CNN that Bashar al-Assad and members of his family, as they put it, have been granted asylum here in Russia. The Russians are saying that all of this is on humanitarian grounds. And you were mentioning, obviously, the Russians for a very long time, one of the real main backers and strongest backers of the Bashar al-Assad regime and now apparently allowing him to come here and stay here, giving him asylum after he's been ousted inside Syria.

And it really comes at the end of a day where for a very long time the whereabouts of the former Syrian leader were very much unclear. If we recall early this morning, when the rebels first entered or took over all of Damascus and started going into government buildings, the presidential palace, they said it was absolutely unclear where Assad is. And it was the Russians actually who first came out and confirmed that Assad had left the country.

They said that Assad had told some of his confidence to make sure that power is handed over in Syria and that he then left the country. That came from the Russian foreign minister, but of course it was unclear where he was. The Russians now tonight confirming that he is indeed in Moscow, that members of his family are in Moscow as well, and that he will be granted asylum by the Russian Federation. Jessica.

DEAN: And Fred, how does this impact Russia's military presence in Syria?

PLEITGEN: Yeah, I mean, that's the big question here in Russia and really something that we've heard here asked quite a lot. One of the things that we have to keep in mind is that these Russian military bases are big and they're extremely important for the Russians because they project power through these bases not just inside Syria, but really also on their way to West Africa, to Libya, and other places as well. And of course, the Mediterranean has become very important. For instance, for Russian naval exercises, which took place just this past week.

Right now, it's absolutely unclear what happens to those military bases. One of the things that the Russians have said is that those bases, the soldiers on those bases, the forces there are on high alert. However, the Russians are also saying that they're in touch with all of the armed groups on the ground, they say, and that for now the safety of their soldiers and those bases have been guaranteed. However, it really seems unclear whether or not the Russians are going to be able to hold on to those assets for an extended period of time or if those who soon will be in power in Syria are going to ask the Russians, possibly other foreign forces that are on the ground in Syria, to leave as well. Again, for the Russians, that would be a big blow. These military

assets have been extremely important. And just from having been on the ground with the Russian forces at these bases, I was at their air base, I was at their naval port as well, and actually on a Russian ship as well. For them, these places were extremely important as far as their military campaign to support Bashar al-Assad at the height of the Syrian civil war were concerned, Jessica.

DEAN: Fred Pleitgen in Moscow for us. Thank you so much for that reporting. We appreciate it. Up next, the U.S. conducting more than 75 new airstrikes inside Syria today, immediately after the Assad regime's collapse. What we know about the targets, also what's being done to keep Assad's weapons arsenal from falling into the wrong hands. We have breaking news coverage for you, continuing in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:25:00]

DEAN: Less than 24 hours after rebels claimed victory in Damascus, the U.S. Central Command says it struck more than 75 ISIS targets in a series of airstrikes on central Syria. We go straight to CNN's Katie Bo Lillis, who is at the Pentagon, with more on this. Katie Bo, what more are you learning about these airstrikes?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Jessica, according to the U.S. military, these were precision strikes that targeted ISIS operatives, camps, and leaders. They used B-52s, F-15s, A-10s.

[17:30:03]

This was part of a broad effort by the U.S. government to try to deny ISIS the opportunity to reconstitute in the midst of this moment of profound uncertainty for Syria in the wake of the fall of Bashar al- Assad and in a moment when the U.S. is concerned about a potential power vacuum giving ISIS that opportunity. Take a listen to how President Biden described the stakes of these -- of these airstrikes today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We're clear-eyed about the fact that ISIS will try to take advantage of any vacuum, to reestablish its capabilities, and to create a safe haven. We will not let that happen. In fact, just today, U.S. forces conducted a dozen of precision strikes, airstrikes, within Syria, targeting ISIS camps and ISIS operatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LILLIS: The other big concern for the U.S. right now is a series of camps that are run by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria that hold thousands of ISIS fighters that have been taken off of the battlefield. Biden said today that the U.S. is also working to help secure those facilities because, of course, the nightmare scenario for the U.S. is that some of those fighters may be -- may escape or be broken out again in this very volatile and uncertain security environment inside Syria right now.

Those prison camps have been a really intractable policy problem for the United States for a long time not only because they hold ISIS fighters from Syria and Iraq, but also because they hold a number of fighters who hail from western nations who are refusing to bring them home. What to do about those camps in the long term and how to keep them secure, always been a problem, a particularly acute one today, again, now in the wake of the fall of Assad with no real sense of certainty of what is coming next.

DEAN: Yeah, no doubt about that. And Katie Bo, just more specifically, what is the Pentagon saying about those U.S. forces that remain inside Syria?

LILLIS: So, there's about 900 American troops still inside Syria where -- the number that has been fairly consistent since the end of the Trump administration. They are there to ensure that ISIS is not able to reconstitute. That's their primary mission. Right now, no indications from the Biden administration or from the Pentagon that these troops are going anywhere which, of course, means the big question is now force protection, how do you keep American service members safe.

The other big question, of course, is going to be what Donald Trump does when he comes into office on January 20th. He tried to completely withdraw from Syria during his first administration. Whether he moves to do so when he takes office in January, big open question, Jessica.

DEAN: Uh-hmm. We will watch that. Katie Bo Lillis at the Pentagon, thank you very much for that. We want to turn now to an expert in all of this, CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Good to have you here with us. I want to start with the news we just heard. The U.S. today conducting dozens of those airstrikes inside Syria. Give us a sense of where the targets are and the weapons that were being used.

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST, RETIRED AIR FORCE COLONEL: Yeah, thanks, Jessica. There are several basic things that we have to look at here, but what we're talking about is targets in this eastern part of Syria and the southeastern part of Syria. So, a better map to show that probably is this one right here. And what you're looking at is all the ISIS concentrations right in this area.

And so, the target area that we're -- that we're really dealing with is this part right in this part of the Syrian desert. This is where those 75 plus targets were struck using munitions that were carried in by the likes of the A-10, which is basically a tank killer, and in many ways, an aircraft built around a Gatling gun, which is a type of machine gun that goes as far back as the Civil War. B-52, the famous bomber workhorse right here, this is something that can -- a vehicle that can carry a whole bunch of bombs, about 31,000 kilograms, 75,000 -- 70,000 pounds of bombs of various types, including the Joint Direct Attack Munition and, of course, the F-15, which is a fighter jet that has a 20-millimeter gun as well as carrying up to 26 bombs, depending on how it's configured.

So that's the kind of weapon systems that were used in this and these can be highly, highly effective against targets like ISIS.

DEAN: And Cedric, there's obvious concern about any sort of power vacuum. What do we know about these different rebel groups and their links to terror groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda?

LEIGHTON: Yes. So, this is, you know, quite a big deal for -- on this particular day. So, let's take a look first at the map right here. We've got the Kurdish forces up here in the north and the northeast, we've got Syrian rebels that now control all of this, you've got Turkey-backed forces, Turkish-backed forces that are here, and then, of course, the Islamic State that we talked about in this particular scenario where we had the U.S. attack on them.

But the main rebel group, the kind of the umbrella group is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham or HTS for short. It's a former al-Qaeda affiliate. Many of its elements are actually based on al-Qaeda or ISIS.

[17:34:58]

The leader is a man named Abu Mohammed al-Julani. He's 42 years old, comes originally from Syria. His parents came from Syria. He was born in Saudi Arabia. But he's got a $10 million bounty on his head because of terrorist activity that he conducted in Iraq. He was actually imprisoned by U.S. forces in Iraq. And, of course, HTS has designated a terror group not only by the U.S. The U.N., Turkey, other countries, have designated this group as a terror group. But it really depends on what they do next, whether or not these designations continue.

DEAN: Hmm. And we heard from the leader of that main rebel group in Syria, HTS, as you mentioned, for the first time this morning since all this happened. I want to listen to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABU MOHAMMED AL-JOLANI, LEADER, HTS (through translator): This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation. This new triumph, my brothers, marks a new chapter in the history of the region, a history fraught with dangers. Leaving Syria as a playground for Iranian ambitions, spreading sectarianism, stirring corruption, it became the world's leading source of (INAUDIBLE). But today, Syria is being purified by the grace of God Almighty and through the efforts of the rogue (ph) Mujahideen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And we heard him describe Syria there during the Assad regime as a -- quote -- playground for Iranian ambition." Walk us through what he might have meant by that.

LEIGHTON: So, this is really quite interesting way of describing things, Jessica. But Iran had a lot of presence in all of these areas. They had main headquarters for their efforts in Damascus. They had bases throughout the country in many of these areas. They were funneling weapons right here into Lebanon. And, of course, those weapons were used by Hezbollah to attack Israel, which is right down over here. So, basically, Syria could be looked at as a staging area for Iran to conduct operations against targets of various types, including American targets in Iraq, American targets potentially in Turkey, targets in Jordan and, of course, Israel and Lebanon. So, with the elimination of Syria as a jumping off point for the Iranians, that makes a huge difference and it really constrains Iran's power.

So, what al-Jolani was talking about here was he doesn't want Syria to be used as a base for Iranian activity because he sees that as detrimental to Syria as well as to the interests of any future Syrian government that he might lead.

DEAN: Hmm. And another thing that we keep hearing about, now that the Assad regime has officially fallen, is this concern around Assad's weapons arsenal and potentially chemical weapons falling into the wrong hands. And we have some video of the aftermath of one of those alleged chemical attacks in 2016 showing the horrific scene of the victims, including children crying. You see people there covering their mouths with towels. Truly awful. What can you tell us about that? What do we know about where this potential arsenal could be stored?

LEIGHTON: So, there are about six storage sites throughout Iraq -- excuse me, throughout Syria that would come into question. There are several around the Homs area. There are some over here in the western side. There are some also near Aleppo, at least they were before the rebels took this area over. So, six sites that are basically capable of not only holding weapons like VX, sarin, mustard gas. Those were the kinds of chemical weapons that you saw being used against Syrian civilians throughout these areas, but particularly in places like Homs and Hama, where the resistance to the Assad regime was so strong at the start of the Syrian civil war.

So, all of these areas potentially still hold chemical weapons that could be weaponized, that could be used for an attack on other nations, other Syrians, and that's the kind of thing that really needs to be prevented and there has to be some kind of an international look at that as we get into the next phase of Syria.

DEAN: All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton walking us through so much of this, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Jessica.

DEAN: Still ahead, how Israel is responding to the fall of the Assad regime, including ordering troops into Syrian territory. The breaking news continues next.

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[17:40:00]

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DEAN: Israel tonight moving troops north after the fall of the Assad regime. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directing the military to take control of the buffer zone, separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria. The move is a sign of the potential danger Israel feels about the unknown rulers in Damascus. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports now from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israeli troops on Sunday began moving into that demilitarized buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces for just over 50 years. This will position those Israeli troops between these newly victorious rebel forces and the communities inside the Israeli-held Golan Heights.

Now, this buffer zone is Syrian territory, but the Israeli prime minister said that he ordered troops into that zone after the Syrian troops on the other end of that buffer zone abandoned their positions.

[17:44:56]

The Israeli prime minister speaking from the Golan Heights also said that he views the collapse of the Assad regime as a -- quote -- "great opportunity," but he also warned that it is one that is also fraught with significant dangers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: This is a historic day for the Middle East. The collapse of the Assad regime, the tyranny in Damascus offers great opportunity, but also is fraught with significant dangers. One of them is the collapse of the separation of forces agreement from 1974 between Israel and Syria. This agreement held for 50 years. Last night, it collapsed. The Syrian army abandoned its positions. We gave the Israeli army the order to take over those positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel. This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And in addition to taking positions inside that buffer zone, Israeli troops are also working to reinforce that border area as well. You can see in these images provided by the Israeli military these vehicles moving the earth in that area to build up a barrier between Israeli-held and Syrian-held territory. Now, we also know that the Israeli military has warned the residents of that buffer zone, Syrian residents, to remain in their homes as Israeli troops operate in the area.

The Israeli prime minister in that video message also sought to take some credit for what has happened inside of Syria, saying that the fall of the Assad regime here by these rebels is a -- quote -- "direct result of Israel's actions against Iran and its proxy in the region, Hezbollah."

Both Hezbollah and Iran have, of course, propped up the Assad regime throughout the course of this 13-year civil war and Israel, we know, has significantly weakened Hezbollah's capabilities both in Lebanon but also inside of Syria. As for the Iranian regime, perhaps distracted by the other events in the region, distracted by Israel itself. And, of course, we know that the fall of the Assad regime will amount to a significant blow for Iran as well.

And so that's where the question leads in terms of the future of Syria and the future of its relations with Israel. Netanyahu said that he is extending a -- quote -- "hand of peace" to all Syrians across the border and that he would like to establish -- quote -- "neighborly and peaceful relations."

The real question, though, is going to be what kind of government actually emerges inside of Syria and will it be one that will preserve what has effectively been a 50-year (INAUDIBLE) between Israel and Syria or will it take another attack. And critically, for Israeli officials, it will be the question of what happens to the weapons that have flowed from Iran via Syria into Hezbollah's hands inside of Lebanon.

There had been some hope inside the Israeli government that perhaps the Assad regime would cut off that flow of weapons, secure its border with Lebanon. That, of course, is off the table now. And so, the question is, will these rebel forces now secure the border with Lebanon and prevent Iranian weapons from getting to Hezbollah via Syria?

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Thank you, Jeremy. Still ahead, no murder weapon and a backpack full of monopoly money. A lot of questions remain in the murder of an insurance CEO. This as we're getting new images of the suspect as the manhunt continues. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: New tonight, a big development in the hunt for the suspect who killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. While authorities believe the suspect has fled New York City, officials have released new photos of the suspect taken from inside a car. Meanwhile, police recovered a backpack they believe belongs to the suspect. And inside, monopoly money.

Joining us now, CNN's Gloria Pazmino. Gloria, what more are you learning about all of this?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, the NYPD has now come up empty for a second day in a row after spending most of today diving in the lake of Central Park. Their diver team spent several hours in that body of water near the boathouse today looking for a potential murder weapon. They once again have not been able to locate it. The reason they're looking in there is because we know they found the backpack in Central Park two days ago, but in that backpack was only the jacket and the monopoly money, whatever that might mean. So, they continue on the search for a potential murder weapon as they try to piece together the evidence, as they continue to figure out the identity of this man.

A significant development late last night, the police department putting out two additional photos of the suspect. And this is a photo where you can, for the first time, very clearly see the eyes of the suspect. It is a very clear, crisp photo taken from inside of a cab. We know that the suspect rode through Central Park on his electric bicycle. At some point, he ditched the backpack. At some point, he might have ditched a weapon. That's what police are looking for. And we know that he exited the park, hailed a cab, and rode up to the bus terminal in Washington Heights, where we were yesterday, where he is seen entering the bus terminal but never leaving.

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Police operating under the assumption that the suspect has left the city of New York. But the identity and name, that still has not become public. Sources briefed on the investigation have told us they believe NYPD officials are closer to making that identification. But for now, we are still waiting to learn that detail. The NYPD expected to potentially provide an update to where the investigation stands beginning next week. They are now going into the fifth day of this investigation still without no information about who this person is. Jessica?

DEAN: All right. Gloria Pazmino for us in New York City, thank you very much for that. And still ahead, we have much more on our breaking news out of Syria. We'll look at Bashar al-Assad's cruel and oppressive rule, how it ended so quickly, and what we know about the rebel group now in control. You're in the "CNN newsroom."

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Take a listen to how President Biden described the stakes of these airstrikes today.

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BIDEN: We're clear-eyed about the fact that ISIS will try to take advantage of any vacuum, to reestablish its capabilities, and to create a safe haven. We will not let