DAMASCUS, Syria, Dec 16, (AP):  Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack. The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups.

Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec. 8, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. He said he left in coordination with Russian allies to the Russian base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he planned to keep fighting. Assad said that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to move him on the night of Dec. 8 to Russia.

"I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said. "At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. "The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”

In a related development, a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said Monday the decision marked a "new stage in Israel’s goal of expanding its borders through occupation,” adding that Ankara was concerned that the move would harm efforts to establish peace and stability in Syria.

"The international community must show the necessary reaction to Israel and ensure that the illegal activities of (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s government come to an end,” the statement read. Qatar also condemned the decision, calling it "a new episode in a series of Israeli aggressions on Syrian territories and a blatant violation of international law.”

The Israeli government approved Netanyahu’s plan on Sunday with the aim to encourage population growth in the area. Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it, though the international community except for the U.S. regards it as occupied. Israeli figures show the remote territory is home to about 50,000 people, about half of them Jewish Israelis and the other half Arab Druze, many of whom still consider themselves Syrians.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus advised Americans to leave Syria, saying the security situation there continues to be volatile and unpredictable with armed conflict and "terrorism throughout the country."

The embassy, which has been closed since 2012, posted a statement on X, warning U.S. citizens who were unable to leave the country to prepare "contingency plans for emergency situations.”

It didn't give further details. The statement also said that the U.S. government is unable to provide any routine or emergency consular services to U.S. citizens and those who need "emergency assistance to depart should contact the U.S. Embassy in the country they plan to enter.”

Sleeper cells of the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for deadly attacks over the past months in different parts of Syria. Despite their defeat in March 2019, the extremists still pose a threat in the war-torn country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported early Monday that Israeli airstrikes pounded missile warehouses and other former Syrian army sites along Syria’s coast in the "most violent strikes in the Syrian coast region since the beginning of the (Israeli) strikes in 2012.”

The Israeli military declined to comment on the strikes. The observatory said that "violent explosions” were heard in the coastal city of Tartous "as a result of the successive strikes and the flying of ground-to-ground missiles from the warehouses.”