Israeli strikes destroy Syria's weapons of war as ousted Assad laments country's fall into "hands of terrorism"

Damascus — A CBS News team drove through a Syrian military airbase on the outskirts of capital city Damascus Monday, and the devastation caused by Israeli air strikes was abundantly clear. Israel has said it's determined to destroy weapons and other military hardware that ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad and his father spent half of a century accumulating, before it can fall into the hands of extremists.

The Israeli military has pounded Syrian military infrastructure relentlessly since Assad fled to Russia earlier this month — forced out by a shock rebel offensive after a decade of civil war that had, until about two weeks ago, largely ground to an apparent stalemate.