Israel has struck military targets in Syria, as crowds of Syrian refugees seek to return home and the rebel forces that toppled the Assad regime look to form a new government.
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00:00Just two days after Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad fled his country, Syrian refugees
00:06in Turkey crowd the border, eager to return home.
00:10It's a long wait to cross, but many here had been waiting much, much longer for the fall
00:15of Assad's regime.
00:30Assad inherited his father's tyrannical regime and was president for more than two decades.
00:39For the last 13 years, he had waged a brutal civil war against opposition forces with the
00:45help of Russia and Iran.
00:47But with those international allies dealing with their own conflicts, a rebel coalition
00:55called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, led a lightning campaign that toppled the regime
01:01in less than two weeks.
01:03Now these rebels are forming a transitional government with the remnants of Assad's regime.
01:08Thank God we've been doing a lot in the past while we've been in power, so we'll see, we'll
01:15see.
01:16There are some files that have high levels of success in them, but we have no way of
01:23getting rid of the old state, we have to take advantage of its existence.
01:30Western leaders welcomed the fall of Assad and the blow it's dealt to Iran and Russia,
01:35but they are now unsure on how to approach a new government led by HTS.
01:40The group has a radical Islamist background, linked to the Islamic State or ISIS, and are
01:45labelled a terrorist organisation by the United States.
01:49It presents a historic opportunity, but it also carries considerable risks.
01:55History shows how quickly moments of promise can descend into conflict and violence.
02:03ISIS will try to use this period to re-establish its capabilities.
02:06Concerned about a neighbour now in flux, US-backed Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Syrian
02:12targets overnight, saying they don't want weapons to fall into the wrong hands.
02:20In the Syrian capital Damascus, jubilation over Assad's rapid fall is now turning into
02:26tentative relief, that the fighting might now be over.
02:30But the shift in power here brings new uncertainties to a region that is already on a knife edge.
02:36Klein Wong and Rick Laut for Taiwan Plus.