Baghdad – As 2,000 or so Syrian soldiers fled to Iraq on Saturday as rebel forces advanced, Iraqi security forces took their weapons from them as they crossed the border, a local source told The New Arab.
Crossing into al-Qaim a day before the Assad regime collapsed, local tribes also helped to provide assistance, including food, in coordination with the mayor and the military.
Iranians and “militia fighters” that had also crossed into Iraq from Syria in recent days were being handled by the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF). “We aren’t sure where they went or are now,” the source added.
In the days before the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday, leaders of Iraqi political and armed factions espoused differing stances on whether the country should send forces across the border to once again prop up the regime.
Multiple Iraqi and international media outlets and public figures had since the start of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led offensive in northern Syria on 27 November raised concerns that Iraq’s stability and security could be negatively affected were the Assad regime to be overthrown.
Several Iraqi armed factions had crossed into Syria since 2012 to fight local opposition groups or to protect Shia religious sites and had long claimed that only “terrorist” groups were in conflict with the government.
In the end, one area after another fell in Syria to opposition forces with very little resistance from the Syrian regime army. As both Iran and Russia began withdrawing their forces, it became clear to most Iraqi armed factions that they would be unable to hold ground for long in a country not their own.
After less than two weeks of fighting, a lightning offensive that had begun in the northwestern corner of Syria spearheaded by HTS managed to secure vast swaths of the country including the capital.
The taking of Damascus on Sunday seemed to mark the end to over a decade of conflict following a popular uprising in 2011, particularly after Russia announced it had granted Assad and his family asylum.
It also marked the beginning of what will likely be significantly cooler relations between Syria and its eastern neighbour, as well as the severing of a land route from Iran to Lebanon largely controlled in recent years in Syria by Iran-linked armed factions.
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Will Iraq’s government curb the militias?
Speaking on national Iraqi television on 2 December, defence ministry spokesman Yahya Rasool stated that Iraqi armed groups that are part of the Iran-led Axis of Resistance, or ‘muqawama’, have a “right” to be in Syria and operate there, claiming that the Syrian rebels making their way towards the capital were only “terrorists” and not “opposition” groups.
Multiple international media outlets reported that more Iran-linked fighters were being deployed to Syria, sometimes quoting Syrian officers.
One Iraq faction, the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Forces, issued a call for volunteers to fight alongside the Syrian armed forces against the opposition factions that had begun moving south towards Damascus following a rapid takeover of the northern city of Aleppo. Photos circulated on social media of men signing up for the deployment.
The call was, however, against the official Iraqi government position not to get involved in Syria’s “internal matter”, despite recognising potential risks to Iraq of instability and rule by the Islamist faction leading the fight across the border.
News also began to trickle out that some fighters linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had actually already begun leaving, despite the Syrian officers’ claims that more were arriving.
A well-informed local Syrian source told The New Arab on 6 December that a man known as Haji Askar, who he called “the most important figure in the region affiliated with the Iranian militias” and who “moves between Qamishli and Deir az-Zour” but was officially in charge of the Albu Kamal area, had already fled to Iraq from Syria.
As it became ever more apparent that Damascus would soon fall to the opposition forces, security was stepped up on the evening of 7 December in central areas of the Iraqi capital with additional checkpoints in the Karrada district, where multiple armed and political factions close to Iran have offices.
Iraqi sources stated that day that the PMF had proceeded to temporarily shutter the office of the Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Forces in central Baghdad to prevent the continued registration of men wanting to fight across the border.
Following the announcement that Damascus had been taken, Iraqi officials were more circumspect in their statements.
“Iraq stresses the need to respect the free will of all Syrians and emphasises that Syria’s security, territorial integrity, and the preservation of its independence are of utmost importance, not only for Iraq but also for its connection to the security and stability of the region,” a statement issued in the afternoon of 8 December and signed by Iraqi government spokesman Bassam al-Awadi noted.
“We reiterate the importance of not interfering in Syria’s internal affairs, or supporting one party for the benefit of another, as interference will only push the situation in Syria towards more conflict and division,” he added.
Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari travelled to the border city of al-Qaim the same day and stressed in statements to the media that security had been reinforced with both additional PMF and army units, and that “a second line of defence” had been established.
Iraqi media reported that the border had been fully closed.
On the evening of 8 December, former Iraqi president Barham Salih wrote on X that the “fall of the Baathist regime in Syria is confirmation that the will of the people is invincible”.
He added: “The important thing is to respect the choices of the Syrian people in building a civil democratic state that guarantees the rights of the Syrian components and ends sectarian and ethnic discrimination. We hope that Syria will enjoy peace and return to its position in the region, supporting stability and free from terrorism and extremism”.
Fighters long decried Syria’s ‘Baathist, weak’ regime
Parts of the Iraqi-Syrian border near al-Qaim and south of it had been largely under the control of Iran-linked sections of the official Iraqi PMF forces since being retaken from the Islamic State (IS) in November 2017.
In interviews conducted with members of several Iraqi armed factions linked to Iran since 2017, all stated that Syrian regime forces were weak, and showed little respect for them.
Some from the Kataib al-Imam Ali (KIA), for example, said in a 2019 interview in the city of al-Qaim that they had “no contact with the Syrian regime’’ when in Syria since it is a “Baathist regime, like Saddam [Hussein]’s”, and that they coordinated and communicated solely with their “brothers in the Axis of Resistance”.
While the PMF on government salaries were generally not officially allowed to cross into Syria with their weapons, many nonetheless spoke openly about doing so.
Other Shia armed factions not on the government salaried PMF payrolls have also long continued to cross in and out of Iraq’s western neighbour essentially at will, according to local security officials and others living in the border area.
With the closing of the border on 8 December and the withdrawal of the Syrian regime and foreign allied forces from the other side, this movement has been halted.
Shelly Kittleson is a journalist specialising in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Her work has been published in several international, US, and Italian media outlets.
Follow her on X: @shellykittleson
