Middle East Correspondent, BBC World Service
BBCBunk beds, discarded military uniforms, moldy half food from abandoned weapons – these are the remains of a sudden retreat from this base, once belonging to Syrian Iran and its affiliated groups.
The scene tells a story of panic. The forces stationed here mostly escaped with warnings, leaving behind a decade-long presence that was unraveled in just a few weeks.
Iran has been Syrian Bashar al-Assad’s most important ally for over a decade. He deployed military advisors, mobilised foreign militias, and invested heavily in the Syrian war.
Its Elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) built a deep network of underground bases, supplying weapons and training to thousands of fighter jets. For Iran, this was also part of the “security belt” against Israel.
We are near the town of Khan Sheikun in Idlib province. Before Assad’s regime fell on December 8th, it was one of the key strategic locations for the IRGC and its alliance groups.
From the main road, the entrance is barely visible and is hidden behind mountains of sand and rock. A hilltop thing still painted in the colour of an Iranian flag overlooking the base.
Receipt notebook checks the name of the base: location of martian Zahedi – Mohammad, the top commander of the IRGC, who was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike at an Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1, 2024 – Named after Leza Zaheady.
I found a receipt for recently ordered consumables – chocolate, rice and cooking oil – suggesting that daily life will last until the last moment. However, the base has new residents – two armed Uyghur fighters of Hayat Taharil Al-Sham (HTS), a group of Islamic extremists whose leader Ahmed Al-Sharara has become Syria’s new interim president.
Uyghur suddenly arrived on a military vehicle and sought media recognition.
“The Iranians were here. They all ran away,” one of them says, “Speaking in their native language, a Turkish dialect. “Whatever you see here is from them. Even these onions and the rest of the food.”
Boxes full of fresh onions are germinated in the courtyard.
The base is a maze of tunnels dug deep into the white rocky hills. Some rooms with no windows have bunk beds. One roof in the hallway is covered in fabric in the colour of an Iranian flag, with some Persian books on rocky shelves.
They left behind documents containing confidential information. All in Persian include personal information, military code, home address, spouse name and mobile phone number details for Iranian fighter jets. From the name it is clear that several fighters at this base came from an Afghan brigade formed by Iran to fight in Syria.
Sources related to the Iranian-backed group told BBC Persia the bases will mostly involve Afghan forces with Iran’s “military advisers” and Iranian commanders.
Tehran’s main justification for military involvement in Syria was to “fight against jihad groups” and to protect the “Shia Holy Shrine” from radical Sunni extremists.
They created paramilitary groups of fighter jets, primarily from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
But when the final moments came, Iran was not ready. Retreat orders reached several bases at the last minute. “Development happened very quickly,” a senior member of Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary group told me. “The order was to take my backpack and head off.”
Sources close to the IRGC told the BBC that most of the forces had to flee to Iraq, some of whom were ordered by Russians to go to Lebanon or Russian bases to evacuate Syria. .
HTS fighter Mohammad al Rabbat witnessed the group’s advance from Idlib to Aleppo and the Syrian capital Damascus.
He says their surgery took “about a year” and at its best they thought “we’d capture Aleppo in three to six months.” But to my surprise, they entered Aleppo within a few days.
The rapid downfall of the regime was brought about by a series of events following Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7th.
The attack led to an escalation of Israeli air against Syrian IRGC and Iran-backed groups and a war with another key Iranian ally, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
This “psychological disintegration situation” for Iran and Hezbollah was central to their downfall, says Rabat, 35-year-old fighter.
But the most important blow came from inside. There was a rift between Assad and his Iran-linked allies, he says.
“There was a complete collapse of trust and military cooperation among them. IRGC-related groups believed that Assad had denounced betrayal and that he had abandoned their place to Israel.”
Passing Khan Shaykhun, you will come across the same as depicted in the colors of the Iranian flag. It will lead to the school building that was used as Iran’s headquarters.
On the wall at the toilet entrance, the slogans read: “Down with Israel” and “With America.”
It was clear that these headquarters were also evacuated in a short period of time. I found a document classified as “very sensitive.”
Abdullah, 65, and his family are one of the few locals who stayed and lived here with an IRGC-led group. He says that life was tough.
His home is just a few meters away from headquarters, with deep grooves of barbed wire in between.
“Night movements were prohibited,” he says.
His neighbor’s house became a military post. “They were sitting there with their guns pointing towards the road, treating all of us as suspects,” he recalls.
Most of the fighters didn’t even speak Arabic, he says. “They were Afghans, Iranians, Hezbollah, but we called them all Iranians because Iranians were in control.”
Abdullah’s wife Julie, who is pleased with the departure of the “Iranian militia” but says she remembers the “stressing” moments before her withdrawal. She thought they would be trapped in a crossfire as Iran-backed groups were preparing to strengthen their position and fight, but “they just disappeared in a few hours.”
“This was a profession. Iranian occupation,” says Abd, who, like everyone else, just returned here with his family 10 years later. His house had also become a military base.
In many conversations with Syrians, I observed this anger towards Iran and a softer attitude towards Russia.
I asked HTS fighter Rabbat why he was.
“The Russians were dropping bombs from the sky, but other than that, they were Iranians and their militias on the ground, at their base. People felt their presence, and many people were I wasn’t happy with that,” he explained.
This sentiment is reflected in the policy of Syria’s new rulers against Iran.
New authorities are banning Iranians who have entered Syria alongside Israelis. However, there is no such ban on Russians.
The Iranian embassy, which was attacked by angry protesters after the collapse of the government, remains closed.
Iranian authorities’ response to Syria’s development is contradictory.
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei has called on people who “produced instability” to “resist” Syrian youth to “resist” to Syria, but Iran’s Foreign Ministry has shown a more balanced view. Masu.
The country says it “supports a government supported by the Syrian people.”
In one of his first interviews, Syrian new leader Shara described his victory over Assad as “the end of the Iranian project.” However, he does not rule out having a “balanced” relationship with Tehran.
However, for now, Iran is not welcome in Syria. After expanding its long-standing military presence, everything Tehran has built is both on the battlefield and in the eyes of most Syrian masses.
Returning to the abandoned base, Iran’s military expansion was still ongoing, even on its last day. Next to the camp there were more tunnels under construction, apparently the beginning of an outdoor hospital. The cement on the wall was still wet and the paint was fresh.
But what remains now is evidence of a short battle – military uniforms covered in several bullet shells and blood.
