Iran's abandoned bases in Syria: 'They were ordered to take their backpacks and leave'

The scene at a former base in Syria, once belonging to Iran and its affiliated organizations, now reveals moldy, half-finished food scattered on bunk beds, discarded military uniforms, and abandoned weapons. These are the remnants left behind after a sudden retreat from the base.

The scene speaks volumes about the panic at the time. The troops stationed here hastily withdrew with little warning, ending a decade-long presence that unraveled in a matter of weeks. Iran had been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most crucial ally for over a decade, deploying military advisors, mobilizing foreign militias, and investing heavily in the Syrian war.

Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) established a network of deeply underground bases, providing weapons and training to thousands of fighters. For Iran, this was also part of its "security belt" against Israel. We are now located near the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province. Before the Assad regime collapsed on December 8, this was one of the key strategic locations for the IRGC and its allies.

From the main road, the entrance to the base is almost invisible, obscured by piles of sand and rocks. A watchtower on the hilltop, still painted in the colors of the Iranian flag, overlooks the entire base. A receipt notebook confirms the base's name: "Martyr Zahedi Position," in memory of Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior IRGC commander allegedly assassinated in an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1, 2024.

Recently ordered supplies—we found receipts for chocolate, rice, and cooking oil—indicate that daily life continued until the very last moment. But now, the base has new occupants: two armed Uighur fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist armed group whose leader, Ahmed Shala'a, has become the new interim president of Syria.

These Uighurs arrived suddenly in military vehicles, demanding we provide media credentials. "The Iranians were here. They all ran away," one of them said in his native language, a Turkic dialect. "Everything you see here is from them. Even these onions and leftover food." Piles of fresh onions in the yard have already sprouted.

The base is a labyrinth of tunnels, dug deep into the white rocky hills. Some rooms contain bunk beds and no windows. In one corridor, the ceiling is draped with fabric in the colors of the Iranian flag, and several Persian books sit on rocky shelves. They left behind documents containing sensitive information. All the documents are in Persian and contain fighters' personal information, military personnel codes, home addresses, spouses' names, and Iranian cell phone numbers. Judging by the names, it is clear that several fighters in this base came from Afghan brigades formed by Iran to fight in Syria.

Sources with ties to Iranian-backed groups told BBC Persian that the base was mainly staffed by Afghan forces, along with Iranian "military advisors" and their Iranian commanders. Tehran's main justification for its military involvement in Syria was to "fight jihadist groups" and protect "Shiite holy sites" from radical Sunni militants. It created paramilitary organizations primarily composed of Afghan, Pakistani, and Iraqi fighters.

However, when the last moment came, Iran was unprepared. The retreat order reached some bases at the last minute. "Things developed too quickly," a senior member of an Iranian-linked Iraqi paramilitary group told me. "The order was to leave with your backpacks." Multiple sources close to the IRGC told the BBC that most troops had to flee to Iraq, while some were ordered to go to Lebanese or Russian bases, from which they were evacuated from Syria by the Russians.

Muhammad al-Labbat, a fighter from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, witnessed the group's advance from Idlib to Aleppo and the Syrian capital, Damascus. He said they believed their operation would take "about a year," and in the best-case scenario, they would "capture Aleppo in three to six months." But to their surprise, they entered Aleppo within days.

The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 triggered a series of events that led to the regime's rapid collapse. That attack led to an escalation of Israeli airstrikes against the IRGC and Iranian-backed groups in Syria, as well as a war against another key Iranian ally, the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, whose leaders were killed in an airstrike. For Iran and Hezbollah, this "situation of psychological collapse" was key to their downfall, said al-Labbat, a 35-year-old fighter.

But the most critical blow came from within: a rift between Assad and his Iranian allies, he said. "There was a complete loss of trust and military cooperation between them. Groups affiliated with the IRGC accused Assad of betrayal and believed he was leaking their positions to Israel."

As we drove through Khan Sheikhoun, we saw a street painted in the colors of the Iranian flag. It led to a building that had been used as an Iranian headquarters. On the wall at the entrance to the toilet, slogans read: "Death to Israel" and "Death to America." It was clear that these headquarters had also been evacuated in a short period of time. We found documents classified as "highly sensitive."

Abdullah, 65, and his family are among the few locals who remained here with the IRGC-led groups. He said life was difficult. His house is only a few meters from the headquarters, separated by a deep ditch with barbed wire. "No passage at night," he said. His neighbor's house was converted into a military outpost. "They sat there with their guns pointed at the road, treating us all as suspects," he recalled. Most of the fighters did not even speak Arabic, he said. "They were Afghans, Iranians, Hezbollah. But we all called them Iranians because Iran controlled them."

Abdullah's wife, Juriya, said she was glad the "Iranian militias" had left but still remembers the "very stressful" moments before the retreat. She thought they would be caught in the crossfire as Iranian-backed groups were reinforcing their positions and preparing to fight, but then "they disappeared in a matter of hours." "It was an occupation. An Iranian occupation," said Abdullah, who, like others, returned here with his family after 10 years. His house had also been turned into a military base.

In many conversations with Syrians, I observed this anger towards Iran and a more moderate attitude towards Russia. I asked al-Labbat, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighter, why this was the case. "The Russians drop bombs from the air, but other than that, they stay in their bases, while the Iranians and their militias interact on the ground. People feel their presence, and many are not happy about it," he explained.

This feeling is reflected in the new Syrian rulers' policies towards Iran. The new authorities have banned Iranian nationals, as well as Israelis, from entering Syria. But no such ban has been imposed on Russians. The Iranian embassy, which was stormed by angry protesters after the regime's collapse, remains closed.

Iranian officials' reactions to developments in Syria have been mixed. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on "Syrian youth" to "resist" those who "bring instability to Syria," while the Iranian Foreign Ministry has taken a more balanced view. It said the country "supports any government that has the support of the Syrian people."

In an interview, Syria's new leader, Shala'a, described their victory over Assad as "the end of the Iranian project." But he did not rule out the possibility of establishing a "balanced" relationship with Tehran. But for now, Iran is not welcome in Syria. After years of expanding its military presence, everything that Tehran has built is now in ruins, both on the battlefield and in the eyes of a large segment of the Syrian public.

Back at the abandoned base, Iran's military expansion was still underway even in the final days. More tunnels were being built next to the camp, apparently the beginnings of a field hospital. The cement on the walls was still wet, and the paint was fresh. But now, what remains is evidence of a brief battle—some shell casings and a military uniform stained with blood.