why Assad’s army failed to fight in Syria
By Maya Gebeily, Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Ahmed Rasheed and Timour Azhari DAMASCUS/AMMAN/BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Twenty-three-year-old Syrian military conscript Farhan al-Khouli was badly paid and demoralized. His army outpost in scrubland near the rebel-held city of Idlib should have had nine soldiers but it just had three, after some had bribed the commanding officers to escape serving, … Read more