in the very near future. and to my dear friends at cnn, thank you for all of the laughs that we've shared. all you've taught me about the power of journalism, and for making my time here so deeply rewarding i wish you all a peaceful holiday season, and we'll see you all soon. >> and alison, i think i speak for all of our viewers here in the united states and around the world when i say we will miss you, you're not only a good friend, but a colleague and an outstanding journalist. and i know whatever your next challenge is and adventures will be they will be exciting and wonderful and we just hope you will stay in touch with all of us and we'll follow you. of course on instagram as you pursue your next challenge. thank you for everything you've done for us. it has always been a pleasure for me personally and for all of our colleagues to work together with you. i appreciate it very very much. and to our viewers, likewise okay. thank you alisyn camerota. thank you very, very

much. and to our viewers thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. i'll see you back here tomorrow night, 6 p.m. eastern. in the situation room. cnn newsroom continues with jessica dean right now this is cnn breaking news you're in the cnn newsroom, and i'm jessica dean in new york. >> the brutal half century assad family regime in syria has ended. >> rebels have taken hold of the capital of damascus. one of several major cities. they took control of in a lightning advance. bashar al-assad fled the presidential palace. that residence, a symbol of his gruesome gruesome dictatorship, has been burned and ransacked. >> at this moment, assad and his family are in moscow after being granted asylum in russia. >> that's according to a source. and the entire world now waits to see what happens in syria. president biden

declaring the u.s. will engage with syrian groups to establish a transition. u.s. central command meanwhile, saying u.s. planes have struck over 75 isis targets in syria today. that is part of an ongoing mission which has hundreds of u.s. troops deployed in that region. cnn's chief international security correspondent, nick paton walsh, has more on assad's fall from power decades of savage, horrific rule over in a matter of days thousands of syrians celebrated in the streets of damascus after rebel forces advanced on the capital early sunday morning, declaring it free of president bashar al assad. >> we announced to you from the syrian news channel the victory of the great syrian revolution. after 13 years of patience and sacrifice, we won the bet and toppled the criminal assad regime. >> facing crumbling resistance from regime forces, rebels

launched a stunning lightning offensive. russia undermining its long term ally by announcing he had fled the country and was granted asylum in moscow. hours of jubilation followed as civilians and rebels entered the presidential palace, looting furniture with children running about. a sign of how every day the suffering he inflicted had been. some even touring the presidential kitchen in a land where starvation was once a weapon. what would you like? one woman says while filming. ah, people are hungry. take whatever you want. traces of assad were being dismantled across the country. this statue of the man who had children gassed in a ghouta basement 11 years ago, toppled in the eastern city of tartus. his image torn down from buildings in damascus. and on top of the gates of homs city center symbolically, where protesters tore apart his image more than a decade ago in a scene that defined the civil war's early days. inspired by the seismic shifts of the arab

spring syrians rose up in 2011, demanding democracy but were met with live rounds and eventually jet planes, chemical weapons and mass executions and torture. hundreds of thousands were killed millions displaced as rebels swept through the capital on sunday. images surfaced of prisoners being released from the notorious saydnaya prison from which so few emerged. dubbed the human slaughterhouse by amnesty international, the militant figure leading this rebel offensive is abu mohammad al-jolani seen here prostrating in prayer upon entering damascus once affiliated with al qaeda. jilani has been suggesting he has matured from his extremist roots. though there are deep concerns about what kind of new syria may now emerge at one of the oldest mosques in the world in damascus. he was received with applause and jeers as he hailed total victory this victory, my brothers, is a victory for the

entire islamic nation. >> this new triumph my brothers, marks a new chapter in the history of the region without doubt a new chapter. >> but with the joy of change comes anxiety at the future. and surely a reckoning of sorts for the decades of horror past that could mire the hope of the days ahead all right. >> nick paton walsh, thank you very much for that reporting. also tonight, cnn is getting a rare look inside damascus. our clarissa ward, the first western journalist to report from syria since bashar al-assad's fall, takes us through the city just hours after he fled. she spoke with wolf blitzer shortly after arriving in the syrian capital. here's that well wolf, i have to say the moment is just utterly surreal for those of us who have been covering this story for more than 14 years. >> it never seemed possible that it would end like this. i want to say that the streets

are incredibly calm incredibly quiet, but you can see just behind me a few cars have been going through the street. there's actually a curfew in place from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. that is a security measure. of course, there has been some looting in damascus earlier on, some chaotic scenes. and so as a precaution, as we saw in aleppo, they have put this curfew into place. i want to show you, though wolf, a clip of the moment that we crossed the border because this is a border that i crossed many times when i used to live in lebanon, when i used to cover syria at the very, very beginning of the uprising and the contrast from what it was and what we experienced tonight is just startling. so take a look at this. so we're just crossing now into syria. >> it's astonishing to see. >> it's absolutely empty. the border points before there would have been soldiers that would have been border guards.

>> now there is absolutely nobody from the syrian regime jonny hallam friendly people waving us through. and honestly, the last time i came down this road was back in 2011. i was leaving syria. i had been undercover in damascus posing as a tourist, went back into lebanon, and i never imagined this moment would come when we would be driving through this border with no one from the regime to stop us the scene at that border crossing, as we pass through it again, it was already dark, already past curfew. >> very very quiet and just nothing like we've seen it before. the only real evidence we saw wolf of any struggle to finally take damascus, to finally ouster bashar al-assad was a tank in the road below a

torn poster of president or i should say, former president bashar al-assad. and, wolf my cameraman, scott mcwhinnie, just found this on the ground literally, as we were listening to that clip. this is the old flag of the syrian regime, which has two green stars, the rebel's flag has three green stars, but this one has now been literally we just found it on the floor. i guess a real moment where you see how much things have changed just in the past 24 hours. >> incredible reporting from our clarissa ward there. thank you so much for that. and our coverage of syria continues now with ambassador james jeffrey. he's a former u.s. envoy for syrian engagement and also the former u.s. ambassador to iraq and turkey. mr.. ambassador, thanks for being here with us. >> thank you for having me. >> we spoke to you last night as this was all unfolding, and

now here we are, roughly 24 hours, almost exactly 24 hours later. and the assad regime has officially fallen. i just first want to get your thoughts on what comes next for syria uh well, first of all, um there's going to have to be a period of internal stabilization uh, that will be very messy. >> i've been involved in about a half a dozen ceasefires in the last 50 years. uh they're, uh, they're never clean. >> they're never orderly. >> we just saw one in, uh, southern lebanon that's still messy. and this is going to be messy. it's a far bigger country that said, uh, all of the parties are talking, uh, our kurdish, syrian democratic forces partners are in conversation with hay'at tahrir al-sham. >> the organization julani leads. >> uh he's in conversation, of course, with the rump government in damascus under prime minister ex-prime

minister jalali and various other forces are coalescing. >> they're getting a lot of external support uh, president biden just came out to underline how important this success has been for the people and for the region. >> and, uh urging that everybody work together and avoid going after each other. we have to watch this carefully, but nonetheless that is the basic worries that we always have, even when a situation turns out very well. this is good for the syrian people. it is good for the region. it is bad for russia and iran thus good for the rest of the world and the u.s. believes there are links between syria's rebel coalition and isis. >> and i know we heard from jake sullivan yesterday, we've heard from the president, one of their main concerns is making sure isis does not reestablish a foothold a stronger foothold there in syria. how does this further complicate this new government and how do you see that piece

of it playing out um, it's a complication, but i would rather be dealing. >> and i was the envoy dealing on the political side with the islamic state for two years. i would rather be dealing with those guys than dealing with the iranian axis of proxies throughout the region yemen, iraq syria, lebanon, gaza. that's a far more difficult problem, as we've all seen over the last 14 months. so even if there are some links we can deal with them. first of all, as you just reported, our central command has just bombed the hell out of the islamic state positions in the madaya desert. meanwhile, the israelis have struck suspected chemical weapons sites that the assad regime may have left behind. so there's a lot of attention on this. the other thing is jolani and his movement has fought the islamic state. and while he is officially still on the terrorist list, we haven't seen any what we would consider terrorist activities out of that movement for a good deal

of time for 4 or 5, six, seven, eight years. and in fact, we indirectly, uh, we didn't work with him, but we were, uh supporting the people. some 3 million refugees that were under his control in the northwest of the country. and we were very appreciative of the efforts he was doing to stop assad russia and iran's advance. >> do you expect to see more u.s. bombings and airstrikes like the ones we saw today oh absolutely. >> uh it's been hard to fully eliminate the islamic state in syria, but i think that that was partially because of the inept nature of the syrian army. i think that with the syrian democratic forces, uh, kurdish allies who have moved, uh, in some cases south of the euphrates, and with these opposition forces unleashed on the islamic state, uh, along with our bombing campaign and the usual kind of raids, our special operations people do i don't think they're going to do very well.

>> and you touched on this in the beginning of our conversation, but just in terms of what this means for iran, what this means for russia, it certainly very bad news for both of them yeah, but in a different way. >> russia's goals in the middle east were relatively limited, mainly focused on syria and preserving a friendly government for the end of having a naval and an air base in northwestern syria to project in a very limited way, power in the region with iran, it was very different. iran has had since 1979 the revolution uh, a goal of essentially taking over a hegemony of the middle east working through proxies, most of them, but not all, uh, shia muslims in countries such as iraq, syria, of course lebanon. gaza i mentioned in yemen and putting the rest of the region under pressure. uh that all has been turned on its head. uh hamas

has been basically destroyed. hezbollah heavily defeated, uh, iran of course, lost heavily in its missile and air war with israel in the last few months. and now the centerpiece of this whole thing, the leigh finke of what we used to call the shia crescent between tehran across iraq, syria into beirut, lebanon, that has been taken away from iran. uh, and this is huge. >> yeah. all right ambassador james jeffrey, we're going to leave it there. but thank you so much for for your thoughts on this. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> still ahead, more of our breaking news coverage as president biden lays out the next steps. his administration will take after the fall of assad's government in syria. plus, new developments on where assad has fled. we're live in moscow, where the russian government has granted him asylum. you're in the cnn newsroom cnn heroes an all star tribute. >> meet and celebrate the honorees. then find out who will be hero of the year. plus, a special tribute to michael j.

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access to the biological and chemical weapons that the assad regime had under its care. a senior administration official left no question that that is a high priority for the administration, and also said that they have high fidelity in this person's words where those weapons are located. but the other priority for the administration right now is to make sure that isis does not exploit this power vacuum, as a way to seek a resurgence in the words of this senior administration official. these guys want to reconstitute. to that end, the u.s. just today launched 140 munitions targeting 75 targets at a large isis gathering in central syria. and they believe that that mission was quite successful. it was designed to send a message to isis, a threat rather not to see the overturning of the assad regime as an opportunity for it to come back. how that plays out still remains to be seen but one big question for the biden administration is who really takes power now, in their eyes it is not a foregone conclusion

that it is hts. at the end of the day, who takes the reins of this country that's been at war for more than a decade and president biden said, ultimately, it's up to the syrian people. here's what he said and i want to say it again, sovereign syria with a new constitution, a new government that serves all syrians. >> and this process will be determined by the syrian people themselves and the united states will do whatever we can to support them, including through humanitarian relief, to help restore syria. after more than a decade of war and generations of brutality by the assad family. >> president biden said the u.s. supports a united nations brokered transition process and the senior administration official says that they are in touch with many opposition groups across the country. jess. >> all right. kayla tausche at the white house for us tonight. thank you very much. a source telling cnn bashar al-assad and his family are now in moscow, where they have been granted asylum. russia's president, vladimir putin, has been a longtime ally of the assad

regime, providing the syrian government with air power and other military support for nearly a decade. fred pleitgen is in moscow. fred, what more do we know about assad's relocation there to russia yeah, it's a russian sources, jessica, now telling cnn that bashar al-assad and members of his family, as they put it, have been granted asylum here in russia. >> the russians are saying that all of this is on humanitarian grounds and you were mentioning, obviously, the russians, for a very long time, one of the real main backers and strongest backers of the bashar al-assad regime, and now apparently allowing him to come here and stay here, giving him asylum after he's been ousted inside syria. and it really comes at the end of a day where for a very long time, the whereabouts of the former syrian leader were very much unclear. if we recall, early this morning when the rebels first entered or took over all of damascus and started going into government buildings, the presidential palace, they said it was absolutely unclear where assad is and it was the russians actually who first

came out and confirmed that assad had left the country. they said that assad had told some of his confidence to make sure that power is handed over in syria, and that he then left the country that came from the russian foreign minister. but of course it was unclear where he was. the russians now tonight, confirming that he is indeed in moscow, that members of his family are in moscow as well, and that he will be granted asylum by the russian federation. >> jessica and fred how does this impact russia's military presence in syria yeah, i mean that's the big question here in russia. >> and really something that we've heard here asked quite a lot. one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that these russian military bases are big and they're extremely important for the russians because they project power through these bases, not just inside syria but really also on their way to west africa, to libya and other places as well and of course, the mediterranean has become very important, for instance, for russian naval exercises which took place just this past week. right now, it's absolutely unclear what happens to those military bases.

one of the things that the russians have said is that those bases, the soldiers on those bases, the forces there are on high alert. however, the russians are also saying that they're in touch with all of the armed groups on the ground, they say, and that for now, the safety of their soldiers and those bases have been guaranteed however, it really seems unclear whether or not the russians are going to be able to hold on to those assets for an extended period of time, or if those who soon will be in power in syria are going to ask the russians possibly other foreign forces that are on the ground in syria, to leave as well. again, for the russians, that would be a big blow. these military assets have been extremely important and just from having been on the ground with the russian forces at their at these bases, i was at their air base. i was at their naval port as well. and actually on a russian ship as well for them, these places were extremely important as far as their military campaign to support bashar al-assad at the height of the civil of the syrian civil war, were concerned. jessica. >> fred pleitgen in moscow, for us. thank you so much for that

reporting. we appreciate it. up next, the u.s. conducting more than 75 new airstrikes inside syria today, immediately after the assad regime's collapse. what we know about the targets. also, what's being done to keep assad's weapons arsenal from falling into the wrong hands? we have breaking news coverage for you, continuing in just a moment on new year's eve live with anderson and andy, live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> when i move, you move just like that. >> when i move you move just like that. when i move, you move just like that hell yeah. hey, dj, bring that back. >> when i move, you go just like that. when i move you move precise designs, subtle curves curated upgrades elevated design for thoughtful living thuma. >> this is the carry on closet. the suitcase with a one of a kind closet system that keeps

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learning about these airstrikes? jessica, according to the u.s. military, these were precision strikes that targeted isis operatives. >> camps and leaders. >> they used b-52s f-15s, a-10s. this was part of a broad effort by the u.s. government to try to deny isis the opportunity to reconstitute, in the midst of this moment of profound uncertainty for syria in the wake of the fall of bashar al-assad, and in a moment when the u.s. is concerned about a potential power vacuum giving isis that opportunity. take a listen to how president biden described the stakes of these of these airstrikes today we're clear eyed about the fact that isis will try to take advantage of any vacuum to reestablish its capabilities and to create a safe haven. >> we will not let that happen. in fact, just today u.s. forces conducted a dozen of precision strikes airstrikes within syria targeting isis camps and isis operatives

the other big concern for the u.s. >> right now is a series of camps that are run by the u.s. backed syrian democratic forces in syria that hold thousands of isis fighters that have been taken off of the battlefield. biden said today that the u.s. is also working to help secure those facilities because, of course, the nightmare scenario for the u.s. is that some of those fighters may be may escape or be broken out again in this in this very volatile and uncertain security environment inside syria right now. those prison camps have been a really intractable policy problem for the united states for a long time, not only because they hold isis fighters from syria and iraq, but also because they hold a number of fighters who hail from western nations, who are refusing to bring them home. what to do about those camps in the long term and how to keep them secure? always been a problem. a particularly acute one today again, now in the

wake of the fall of assad, with no real sense of certainty of what is coming next. yeah, no doubt about that. and katie just more specifically, what is the pentagon saying about those u.s. forces that remain inside syria? so there's about 900 american troops still inside syria, where the number that has been fairly consistent since the end of the trump administration. they are there to ensure that isis is not able to reconstitute that's their primary mission right now. no indications from the biden administration or from the pentagon that these troops are going anywhere, which of course, means the big question is now force protection. how do you keep american service members safe? the the other big question, of course, is going to be what donald trump does when he comes into office on january 20th. he tried to completely withdraw from syria during his first administration. whether he moves to do so when he takes office in january big open question, jessica. we will watch that. katie lillis at the pentagon thank you very much for that. we want to turn now

to an expert in all of this. cnn military analyst and retired u.s. air force colonel cedric leighton. good to have you here with us. i want to start with the news. we just heard the u.s. today conducting dozens of those airstrikes inside syria. give us a sense of where the targets are and the weapons that were being used. >> yeah thanks, jessica. and there's there are several basic things that we have to look at here. but what we're talking about is targets in this eastern part of syria and the southeastern part of syria so better map to show that probably is this one right here. and what you're looking at is all the isis concentrations right in this area. and so the target area that we're that we're really dealing with is this part right in this part of the syrian desert. this is where those 75 plus targets were struck using munitions that were carried in by the likes of the a-10, which is basically a tank killer. and in many ways, an aircraft built around a gatling gun, which is a type of machine gun that goes

as far back as the civil war b-52, the famous bomber workhorse right here. this is something that can a vehicle that can carry a whole bunch of bombs about 31,000kg, 75,000 or 70,000 pounds of bombs of various types, including the joint direct attack munition and of course the f-15, which is a fighter jet that has a 20 millimeter gun, as well as carrying up to 26 bombs, depending on how it's configured. so that's the kind of weapons systems that were used in this. and these can be highly, highly effective against targets like isis. >> and cedric. there's obvious concern about any sort of power vacuum. what do we know about these different rebel groups and their links to terror groups like isis and al qaeda? >> yeah. so this is you know, quite a big deal for on this particular day. so let's take a look first at the map right here we've got the kurdish forces up here in the north. and the northeast. we've got syrian rebels that now control all of this. you've got

turkey backed forces, turkish backed forces that are here. and then, of course, the islamic state that we talked about in this particular scenario where we had the u.s. attack on them. but the main rebel group, the kind of the umbrella group is hayat tahrir al-sham or hts for short. it's a former al qaeda affiliate, and many of its elements are actually based on al qaeda or isis. the leader is a man named abu mohammad al-julani. he's a 42 years old. comes originally from syria. his parents do well, came from syria. he was born in saudi arabia, but he's got a $10 million bounty on his head because of terrorist activity that he conducted in iraq. he was actually imprisoned by u.s. forces in iraq and, of course, he is designated a terror group not only by the u.s., the u.n., turkey, other countries have designated this group as a terror group. but it really depends on what they do next, whether or not these designations continue and we

heard from the leader of that main rebel group in syria as you mentioned, for the first time this morning since all this happened i want to listen to it this victory my brothers, is a victory for the entire islamic nation. >> this new triumph, my brothers, marks a new chapter in the history of the region. a history fraught with dangers. leaving syria as a playground for iranian ambitions spreading sectarianism, stirring corruption it became the world's leading source of captagon. but today syria is being purified by the grace of god almighty and through the efforts of the heroic mujahideen and we heard him describe syria. >> there during the assad regime as a quote playground for iranian ambition. walk us through what he might have meant by that. >> so this is really quite an interesting way of describing things jessica. but iran had a lot of presence in all of these

areas. they had main headquarters for their efforts in damascus. they had bases throughout the country in many of these areas, they were funneling weapons right here into lebanon and of course, those those weapons were used by hezbollah to attack israel, which is right down over here. so basically, syria could be looked at as a staging area for iran to conduct operations against targets of various types, including american targets in iraq, american targets potentially in turkey, targets in jordan and, of course, israel. and lebanon. so with the elimination of syria as a jumping off point for the iranians, that makes a huge difference. and it really constrains iran's power so what al-julani was talking about here was he doesn't want syria to be used as a base for iranian activity, because he sees that as detrimental to syria as well as to the interests of of any future syrian government that he might lead. >> and another thing that we keep hearing about now that the

assad regime has officially fallen is this concern around assad's weapons arsenal and potentially chemical weapons falling into the wrong hands. and we have some video of the aftermath of one of those alleged chemical attacks in 2016, showing the horrific scene of the victims, including children, crying. you see people there covering their mouths with towels. um truly awful. what can you tell us about that? what do we know about where this potential arsenal could be stored? >> so there are about six storage sites throughout iraq. excuse me? throughout syria that would come into question. there are several around the homs area. there's some over here in the western side. there are some also near aleppo. at least they were before the rebels took this area over. so six sites that are basically capable of not only holding weapons like sarin, mustard gas, those were the kinds of of

chemical weapons that you saw being used against syrian civilians throughout these areas. but particularly in places like homs and hama, where the resistance to the assad regime was so strong at the start of the syrian civil war. so all of these areas potentially still hold chemical weapons that could be weaponized, that could be used for an attack on other other nations, other syrians. and that's the kind of thing that really needs to be prevented. and there has to be some kind of an international look at at that. as we get into the next phase of syria. >> all right colonel cedric leighton walking us through so much of this thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> you bet. jessica. >> still ahead, how israel is responding to the fall of the assad regime, including ordering troops into syrian territory. the breaking news continues next this holiday season, find the perfect gift at cnn underscored from the latest fashion to expert approved tech to the

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just over 50 years. >> this will position those israeli troops between these newly victorious rebel forces and the communities inside the israeli held golan heights. now, this buffer zone is syrian territory, but the israeli prime minister said that he ordered troops into that zone after the syrian troops on the other end of that buffer zone abandoned their positions. the israeli prime minister speaking from the golan heights also said that he views the collapse of the assad regime as a, quote, great opportunity. but he also warned that it is one that is also fraught with significant dangers. >> this is a historic day for the middle east. the collapse of the assad regime, the tyranny in damascus offers great opportunity, but also is fraught with significant dangers. one of them is the collapse of the separation of forces agreement from 1974 between israel and syria. this agreement, held for 50 years. last night it collapsed the syrian army abandoned its positions. we gave the israeli

army the order to take over these positions to ensure that no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of israel. this is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found. >> and in addition to taking positions inside that buffer zone, israeli troops are also working to reinforce that border area as well. you can see in these images provided by the israeli military, these vehicles moving the earth in that area to build up a barrier between israeli held and syrian held territory. now, we also know that the israeli military has warned the residents of that buffer zone. syrian residents, to remain in their homes as israeli troops operate in the area. the israeli prime minister in that video message also sought to take some credit for what has happened inside of syria, saying that the fall of the assad regime here by these rebels is a, quote, direct result of israel's actions against iran and its proxy in

the region. hezbollah both hezbollah and iran have of course, propped up the assad regime throughout the course of this 13 year civil war and israel, we know, has significantly weakened hezbollah's capabilities, both in lebanon. but also inside of syria. as for the iranian regime, perhaps distracted by the other events in the region, distracted by israel itself and of course, we know that the fall of the assad regime will amount to a significant blow for iran as well. and so that's where the question leads in terms of the future of syria and the future of its relations with israel. netanyahu said that he is extending a, quote, hand of peace to all syrians across the border and that he would like to establish, quote neighborly and peaceful relations. the real question, though, is going to be what kind of government actually emerges inside of syria? and will it be one that will preserve what has effectively been a 50 year

detente between israel and syria? or will it take another tack? and critically for israeli officials will be the question of what happens to the weapons that have flowed from iran via syria into hezbollah's hands inside of lebanon? there had been some hope inside the israeli government that perhaps the assad regime would cut off that flow of weapons, secure its border with lebanon. that, of course, is off the table now. and so the question is, will these rebel forces now secure the border with lebanon and prevent iranian weapons from getting to hezbollah via syria? jeremy diamond cnn, tel aviv thank you. >> jeremy. still ahead. no murder weapon and a backpack full of monopoly money a lot of questions remain in the murder of an insurance ceo. this as we're getting new images of the suspect as the manhunt continues you're in the cnn newsroom can't fool myself.

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to do is tap a few buttons and they take care of it download rocket money today i'm natasha bertrand at the pentagon and this is cnn closed captioning is brought to you by mike, an all in one home access and monitoring system mike, you boost your home's iq new tonight. >> a big development in the hunt for the suspect who killed unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. while authorities believe the suspect has fled new york city officials have released new photos of the suspect taken from inside a car. meanwhile, police recovered a backpack they believe belongs to the suspect and inside monopoly money. joining us now, cnn's gloria pazmino. gloria, what more are

you learning about all of this well jessica, the nypd has now come up empty for a second day in a row after spending most of today diving in the lake of central park. their dive team spent several hours in that body of water near the boathouse today, looking for a potential murder weapon. they once again have not been able to locate it the reason they're looking in there is because we know they found the backpack in central park two days ago, but in that backpack was only the jacket and the monopoly money whatever that might mean. so they continue on the search for a potential murder weapon as they try to piece together the evidence as they continue to figure out the identity of this man, a significant development late last night, the police department putting out two additional photos of the suspect. and this is a photo where you can for the first time, very clearly see the eyes

of this suspect. it is a very clear, crisp photo taken from inside of a cab. we know that the suspect rode through central park on his electric bicycle. at some point he ditched the backpack. at some point, he might have ditched a weapon. that's what police are looking for. and we know that he exited the park hailed a cab and rode up to the bus terminal in washington heights, where we were yesterday where he is seen entering the bus terminal but never leaving police operating under the assumption that the suspect has left the city of new york. but the identity, a name that still has not become public sources briefed on the investigation have told us they believe nypd officials are closer to making that identification. but for now, we are still waiting to learn that detail. the nypd expected to potentially provide an update to where the investigation stands, beginning next week.

they are now going into the fifth day of this investigation still without no information about who this person is jessica. all right. gloria pazmino for us in new york city. thank you very much for that. and still ahead, we're going to have much more on our breaking news out of syria. we'll look at bashar al-assad's cruel and oppressive rule. how it ended so quickly, and what we know about the rebel group now in control. you're in the cnn newsroom welcome to times square that's not on my mind it's so embarrassing. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. >> live coverage. i'm gonna hold you forever i'll be there you don't you don't have to worry. >> the cover is one of the most classic and elegant desserts.

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