raqi Shia paramilitaries said they were not attacked by rebel forces in Syria and have been left to return to Iraq unhindered.

The rebels, who overran Damascus on Saturday and toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, have also avoided any aggression around Sayyida Zeinab, an important religious site that Shia fighters from Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iran have sought to protect during Syria’s civil war.

“What happened is unbelievable. They [the rebels] were passing by us and they didn’t even stop,” a commander in an Iraqi armed faction in Syria told MEE.

The rebel commanders “told us that no one would attack us or harm us as long as we were not armed”, he said, “and they also pledged not to attack the holy shrines, the Shia and the rest of the minorities”.

“What is happening is beyond belief. Our orders are to return to the border strip and monitor the situation until further notice,” he added.

However, since the rebels began a shock offensive last on 27 November, capturing a string of cities, the Iraqi armed factions have unanimously decided not to intervene to save Assad.

A few hundred Iraqi fighters were already deployed in Syria, mostly in the far east, and were occasionally the target of Israeli air strikes.

Two senior Iraqi officials told MEE that Fayadh was last week dispatched to Damascus and Ankara, which supports the Syrian opposition, “in an attempt to bring the two sides closer together”.

However, Fayadh’s mediation did not yield results “as Assad refused to make any concessions”, the officials said. The Syrian president’s request for military reinforcements was denied