UPDATE: BIDEN TO MEET WITH NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISORS ON SYRIA

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US President Joe Biden will meet Sunday with his national security advisors over Syria, where Islamist-led rebels declared they had taken Damascus and overthrown President Bashar al-Assad.

The United States so far has been muted in its response, as other world leaders have weighed in to urge peace, hailing the fall of Assad and encouraging a political solution to stabilize the war-stricken country.

“The President will meet with his national security team this morning to receive an update on the situation in Syria,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett posted on X.

Assad’s reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning rebel offensive that broke long-frozen frontlines in the country’s civil war.

Early Sunday, they announced they had entered Damascus and that Assad had fled, prompting celebrations around the country and a ransacking of Assad’s luxurious home.

The US military has around 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of the international coalition that was established in 2014 to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group.

It has regularly struck targets in the country including those linked to Iranian-backed militias. Tehran was a major backer of Assad’s government.

AFP