The Israeli military said Sunday it also sent troops to “other places necessary for its defence,” and that the force deployment was meant to provide security for residents of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

It added it was “not interfering with the internal events in Syria.”

Israel captured that territory from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it, a move not recognized by much of the international community, which views the territory as occupied.

A later ceasefire agreement created a demilitarised buffer zone between the two countries' territories, prohibiting military presence or activity from either side in the area. United Nations peacekeepers have patrolled the area since 1974.

Head of US-backed Kurdish-led forces hails Assad's fall

Beirut -- “This change presents an opportunity to build a new Syria based on democracy and justice that secures the rights of all Syrians,” Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a written statement, praising the fall of the “authoritarian regime in Damascus”.

The Kurdish-led group has a significant presence in northeastern Syria, where they have clashed with the extremist Islamic State group and Turkish-backed militias over the years.