The Syrian regime’s collapse came more quickly than the rebels had dreamed — the circumstances were both serendipitous and part of a larger global realignment.
December 21, 2024
By Kareem Fahim, Loveday Morris, Louisa Loveluck, Greg Miller, Mohamad El Chamaa and Beril Eski
ISTANBUL — Rebels were barreling toward the Syrian capital, but the president’s men were in no mood for the battle.
For more than a week they had watched city after town fall to the rebellion. By Saturday, the insurgents were threatening Homs, a strategic fire wall of Bashar al-Assad’s government. Iyad Ahmed, a 22-year-old soldier who said he was paid the equivalent of about $2 a month, was stationed on the city’s outskirts.
“We didn’t want to fight,” he said.
He was spared the decision. At 10 p.m. Dec. 7, his commander ordered Ahmed and his colleagues to withdraw. “I dropped my weapon and fled,” he said. He shed his uniform in the street.
Damascus, the capital, fell to the rebels that night.