Demoralised and abandoned by allies: why Assad’s army failed to fight in Syria
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,