NEW YORK, December 9. /TASS/. Over 4,000 Syrian troops have crossed into Iraq since the armed opposition took control of Damascus, the Associated Press reported, citing sources.
According to an Iraqi militia official, the soldiers turned over their weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles. They will be housed in a camp; its location has not been disclosed.
A security official, in turn, said that the governor of the Syrian province of Hasakah had also crossed into Iraq with a convoy of Syrian army soldiers on Sunday night.
On Sunday, the Shafaq News outlet reported that the Iraqi authorities were building a tent camp for Syrian soldiers who had crossed the border, while no decision on their figure had been made yet. The INA news agency reported on December 7 that the Iraqi authorities had allowed over 1,000 Syrian troops into the country via the Qaim crossing. However, there is currently no accurate data on the number of Syrian soldiers in Iraq.
On November 27, Syria’s armed opposition units launched a large-scale offensive on the positions of government forces in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. By the evening of December 7, President Bashar Assad’s opponents had seized several large cities, including Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, and Homs. On December 8, they entered the Syrian capital, Damascus, while the army withdrew from the city. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali expresses readiness to transfer power peacefully.