Syria parliament says 'supports people's will', after Assad falls

DAMASCUS/ BEIRUT — Syria's parliament said Monday it supports the will of the people to build a new country, a day after President Bashar Al Assad left Damascus as rebels took over.

"December 8th was a historic day in the lives of all Syrians. We support the will of the people to build a new Syria towards a better future governed by law and justice," parliament, formerly pro-Assad, said in a statement carried by SANA -- the state news agency whose logo on Telegram now bears the three stars of the rebel flag.

Meanwhile, a Syria war monitor said Monday that overnight Israeli strikes targeted military positions and depots in several parts of the country, after rebels ousted president Bashar Al Assad.

"Since the initial hours after the announcement of the fall of the former regime, Israel began launching intensive air strikes, deliberately destroying weapons and ammunitions depots," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The targets of the overnight strikes included "air defence weapons depots and ammunition depots" belonging to the Syrian military in the coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces, said the Observatory.

The Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said Israel also launched strikes in the country's south targeting Tal Al Hara near the Israeli-annexed Syrian Golan Heights, and military positions in Izraa, in Daraa province.

Further Israeli strikes destroyed warehouses holding "anti-tank weapons" in the Qalamoun area in the Damascus countryside, the Observatory added. 

Since Syria's civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups. 

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.

The overnight raids came after the Observatory said Israeli strikes on Sunday hit a security compound of military, intelligence and customs buildings in the city of Damascus.

It said Israeli strikes also hit elsewhere including army positions and weapons depots near the Mazzeh military airport on the city's outskirts.

The Observatory also said Israel on Sunday "bombed former military sites" in southern Syria's Quneitra province.

It also said "ground forces penetrated... and took control of former regime force observation points" in the Mount Hermon area, further north closer to the Lebanese border.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he had ordered the Israeli military to "seize" a demilitarised buffer zone on the border with Syria after Assad's overthrow, while Israel's military imposed a curfew for residents of five Syrian towns in the area.

The Israeli leader said a 50-year-old "disengagement agreement" between the two countries had collapsed and "Syrian forces have abandoned their positions".

As a result, he said, "I directed the military yesterday to seize the buffer zone and the commanding positions nearby. We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border."

Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it in a move largely unrecognised by the international community.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday the takeover of the buffer zone was a "limited and temporary step".