SUBJECT: A few weeks ago, Farhan al-Khouli was leading the forces of Idlib, in northern Syria, to Bashar al-Assad’s army.
The story of his desertion – one of many – shows how Assad’s forces crumbled when the rebels left.
Khouli’s commander called to say that the rebel convoy was leaving.
They were just three men, poorly paid and demoralized, one being said by his superiors to be unfit to bear arms.
They were supposed to be nine but some had taken a bribe to get out.
They should stop fighting, said the officer.
Instead, Khouli put his phone on airplane mode, changed into traditional clothes, dropped his gun and fled.
He ended up in Damascus, now taken over by the rebels, where he found work at a horse stable.
On the way he saw some groups of soldiers fleeing.
“They were in the room with me. I don’t know anything about them. Everyone went one way, some went this way, some went that way. I wanted to get to the highway, because if I got to the highway, I wouldn’t have to worry. I reach Hama, I reach Homs, I have no problem. I saw all the people gathering. It’s over, they ran away, the whole place is gone. I said God be praised while I am here with the almighty god when they said the whole place has collapsed I started crying with joy.
:: November 29, 2024
Reuters spoke to a dozen sources, including Syrian military and security sources and military officials.
Since Aleppo was attacked in late November, the army has not been given a clear plan but has been told to prepare for itself, two Syrian security sources said.
Within two weeks, the rebels had ousted Assad’s brutal regime.
His army lacked leadership and defense strategy, the sources said, and had lost its command structure – Iranian military advisers and military proxies such as Hezbollah – who abandoned the war with Israel’s allies.
The army also lacked credibility, as Khouli’s story illustrates.
Khouli did not want to register but says he was forced.
He ended up in that remote place in Idlib because he tried to leave once and was imprisoned for it.
A former official told Reuters that the use of forced registration was a “fatal mistake.”
Khouli says he had to do heavy manual labor in extreme heat and cold.
Reuters could not reveal details of his activities.
He says he was paid $40 a month and was hungry.
“We used to get sugar, ghee, and oil, but it ran out, it used to be stolen, and we didn’t see anything. What we received was a pot of wheat, mainly bulgar, I mean, we would go four or five days with only bulgar, and each person had a pinch of tomatoes and potatoes. Everyone received their share, I mean, it’s not enough to fill you up.”
:: North Hama, Syria
:: Released December 1, 2024
In 2020, the army had 130,000 personnel, according to the IISS think tank, finished with a long civil war and working mainly as an army.
A US official told Reuters Washington was studying high-profile defections and military defections in the days before Assad fell.
Corruption is at an all-time high.
Colonel Makhlouf Makhlouf served in the engineer brigade stationed in Hama but left before the city fell on December 5.
He said that if anyone complained about corruption, he would be questioned at a military court, which happened to him several times.
A senior military intelligence official told Reuters that anger had been building against Assad within the military, especially over the past year…
…including among the top supporters from his minority Alawite community.
Despite his military past, Khouli says he is not afraid of the future. “I am happy and free,” he says. “I’m not scared at all.”