DAMASCUS –
As city after city fell to a lightning rebel offensive in Syria last December, Iranian forces and diplomats supporting Bashar Assad saw the writing on the wall, abandoning the longtime ruler days before his ousting, sources said.
During Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 following the government’s brutal repression of pro-democracy protests, Iran was one of Damascus’ biggest backers, sending Assad military advisers and forces from its Revolutionary Guard.
Iranian and allied regional fighters — mainly from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, but also from Iraq and Afghanistan — had held key locations and helped prop up Assad, only to melt away in the face of Islamist-led forces’ headlong rush toward the capital.