Corruption and incompetence in the army and successful outreach by the rebels left the troops with little to fight for
. There was no traffic on the floodlit highways leading into the vast estate, and apparently no defenders among the carefully tended trees. In the empty guardhouses, coats were still hung on the back of doors, so swiftly had the occupants fled.
Equally important were units of shock troops known as the “red brigades” given extra instruction and conditioning before being deployed as highly mobile units behind enemy lines. Many members have survived years of fighting and are some of the most extremist, as well as most experienced, elements in the rebel coalition.
Yet the various strengths of the rebels were far from the decisive factor in the battle for the country. It was the weakness of the regime’s military and auxiliary forces that sounded the death knell for Assad’s rule and made the leader of HTS, Ahmed al-Shaari, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the most obvious immediate contender to be the de facto ruler of Syria.
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