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colorplay Syria’s Army Was Hollowing Out Long Before Rebels’ Advance
Updated:2024-12-11 02:08    Views:161

For yearscolorplay, Syrian soldiers have been complaining on Facebook about their bosses. Commanders who took bribes in exchange for leave. Leaders who ordered soldiers to loot. Officers who stole their troops’ food or got drunk on the job.

After 13 years of a grueling civil war that devastated Syria, that corrosion came back to haunt the regime.

Rebels on Sunday swept into the capital, Damascus, as President Bashar al-Assad fled the country his family had ruled for decades.

Multiple factors, including preparation by the main rebel coalition and Mr. al-Assad’s sudden abandonment by his closest allies, contributed to his fall. But the internal deterioration of Mr. al-Assad’s own military meant that when he needed his troops most, many chose to strip off their uniforms and get out of the rebels’ way.

Last month, after the rebels burst out of the country’s northwest and began a lightning march south, a soldier from one embattled unit posted an anonymous plea to his commander in chief.

“The battalion leaders fled and left the troops and officers to their fate,” the soldier wrote, as documented by Gregory Waters, a Syria researcher, in a recent newsletter. The soldier said that he had lost dozens of comrades.

Where rebels swept across Syria over two weeks

Here’s how the main rebel coalition advanced through the northwest.

As of Nov. 26 (before offensive)

Turkish-backed

opposition

Joint control

with Syrian

gov’t

TURKEY

Aleppo

Kurds

Kurds

Main rebel

coalition

Hama

Syrian government

Homs

Area of

detail

SYRIA

Damascus

40 miles

Lebanon

Dec. 3

Turkish-backed

opposition

TURKEY

Aleppo

Kurds

Main rebel

coalition

Hama

Syrian government

Homs

Damascus

40 miles

Lebanon

25 MILES

Dec. 5

Turkish-backed

opposition

TURKEY

Aleppo

Kurds

Main rebel

coalition

Hama

Syrian government

Homs

Damascus

40 miles

Lebanon

Dec. 7

Turkish-backed

opposition

TURKEY

Aleppo

Kurdish advances

after government

withdrawal

Main rebel

coalition

Hama

Syrian government

Homs

Damascus

40 miles

Lebanon

As of Nov. 26 (before offensive)

Dec. 3

Turkish-backed

opposition

Turkish-backed

opposition

Joint control

with Syrian

gov’t

TURKEY

TURKEY

Aleppo

Aleppo

Kurds

Kurds

Main rebel

coalition

Main rebel

coalition

Hama

Hama

Syrian government

Syrian government

Homs

Homs

Area of

detail

SYRIA

Damascus

40 miles

Damascus

40 miles

Lebanon

Lebanon

25 MILES

Dec. 5

Dec. 7

Turkish-backed

opposition

Turkish-backed

opposition

TURKEY

TURKEY

Aleppo

Aleppo

Kurds

Kurdish advances after

goverment withdrawal

Main rebel

coalition

Main rebel

coalition

Hama

Hama

Syrian government

Syrian government

Homs

Homs

Damascus

40 miles

Damascus

40 miles

Lebanon

Lebanon

Note: Areas of control are approximate.

Sources: Institute for the Study of War and AEI's Critical Threats Project (areas of control); Janes (rebel control as of November)

By Martín González Gómez and Lauren Leatherby

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