Iran retreats from Syria
Mouldy half-finished food on bunk beds, discarded military uniforms and abandoned weapons - these are the remnants of an abrupt retreat from this base that once belonged to Iran and its affiliated groups in Syria.
The scene tells a story of panic. The forces stationed here fled with little warning, leaving behind a decade-long presence that unravelled in mere weeks.
Iran was Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most critical ally for more than 10 years. It deployed military advisers, mobilised foreign militias, and invested heavily in Syria's war.
Its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) built deep networks of underground bases, supplying arms and training to thousands of fighters. For Iran, this was also part of its "security belt" against Israel.
We are near Khan Shaykhun town in Idlib province. Before Assad's regime fell on 8 December, it was one of the key strategic locations for the IRGC and its allied groups.
From the main road, the entrance is barely visible, hidden behind piles of sand and rocks. A watchtower on a hilltop, still painted in the colours of the Iranian flag, overlooks the base.
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The supplies recently ordered - we found receipts for chocolates, rice, cooking oil - suggest daily life continued here until the last moments. But now the base has new occupants - two armed Uyghur fighters from Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist militant group whose leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has become the new interim president of Syria.
The Uyghurs arrived suddenly in a military vehicle, asking for our media accreditation.
"Iranians were here. They all fled," one of them says, speaking in his mother tongue, a dialect of Turkish. "Whatever you see here is from them. Even these onions and the leftover foods."
Boxes full of fresh onions in the courtyard have now germinated.
The base is a labyrinth of tunnels dug deep into white rocky hills. There are bunk beds in some rooms with no windows. The roof of one of the corridors is draped in fabric in the colours of the Iranian flag and there are a few Persian books on a rocky shelf.
They left behind documents containing sensitive information. All in Persian, they have details of fighters' personal information, military personnel codes, home addresses, spouses' names and mobile phone numbers in Iran. From the names, it's clear that several fighters in this base were from the Afghan brigade that was formed by Iran to fight in Syria.
Sources linked to Iran-backed groups told BBC Persian that the base houses mainly Afghan forces accompanied by Iranian "military advisers" and their Iranian commanders.
Tehran's main justification for its military involvement in Syria was "to fight against jihadi groups" and to protect "Shia holy shrines" against radical Sunni militants.
It created paramilitary groups of mainly Afghan, Pakistani and Iraqi fighters.
Yet, when the final moment came, Iran was unprepared. Orders for retreat reached some bases at the very last moment. "Developments happened so fast," a senior member of an Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary group tells me. "The order was to just take your backpack and leave."
Multiple sources close to the IRGC told the BBC that most of the forces had to flee to Iraq, and some were ordered to go to Lebanon or Russian bases to be evacuated from Syria by the Russians.
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This "situation of psychological collapse" for Iran and Hezbollah was central to their downfall, says 35-year-old fighter Rabbat.
But the most crucial blow came from within: there was a rift between Assad and his Iran-linked allies, he says.
"There was a complete breakdown of trust and military co-operation between them. IRGC-linked groups were blaming Assad of betrayal and believing that he is giving up their locations to Israel."
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Most of the fighters didn't even speak Arabic, he says. "They were Afghans, Iranians, Hezbollah. But we referred to them all as Iranians because Iran was controlling them."
Abdullah's wife Jourieh says she is happy that the "Iranian militias" have left, but still remembers the "stressful" moment before their withdrawal. She had thought they would be trapped in crossfire as Iran-backed groups were fortifying their positions and getting ready to fight, but then "they just vanished in a few hours".
"This was an occupation. Iranian occupation," says Abdo who, like others, has just returned here with his family after 10 years. His house had also become a military base.
I observed this anger towards Iran and a softer attitude towards Russia in many conversations with Syrians.
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Iran appears to be a much weaker power after the removal of the Shah. It has less access to Western military equipment and know-how. The fight in Syria was between Muslim factions. The fractions between the Muslim groups have made it easier for Israel to defend itself and its interests.
See also:
Bombs Biden Admin Withheld from Israel, Finally Arrive Thanks to Trump
And:
Israel Calls on America to ‘Finish the Job’ against Iran
'Over the last 16 months, Israel has dealt a mighty blow to Iran’s terror axis. Under the strong leadership of President Trump and with your unflinching support, I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job...'
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