SAYEDAH ZAINAB, Syria – In the shadow of the golden-domed Sayedah Zainab Shrine, six miles south of Damascus, lie the abandoned remains of what was once the de facto headquarters of the Iranian Resistance Axis, an informal alliance of militant groups formed to challenge American and Israeli influence counteract the Middle East.
The defense of this shrine – where Shiites believe the Prophet Mohammed's granddaughter is buried – served as a rallying cry for Shiites across the region to support former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against Sunni insurgents. Tens of thousands of mostly Shiite militiamen – from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and even Pakistan and Afghanistan – poured into the run-down neighborhoods of Sayedah Zainab, turning a pilgrimage site into a military zone.
“This place became the political capital for all these groups,” said Mohammad Al-Hahi, 68, a resident of Sayedah Zainab. “They flew in from all over the world and gathered here. Then they would fight all over Syria.”
It all ended abruptly last month after Syria's Sunni rebels toppled Assad, sparking a frantic escape from the city of everyone who had been fighting under Iran's banner.
A garbage fire causes smoke to rise above the Sayedah Zainab shrine. After Sunni rebels overthrew Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Shiite militiamen fled the region.
An Iranian flag was left at the headquarters of a former Shiite military group in Sayedah Zainab.
In recent weeks, residents here have begun to grapple with the legacy of their former life under the control of Iran-backed militias – and what it means for the future of the Axis.
Khaled Darwish, 42, who runs a cell phone shop two streets away from the shrine, viewed the presence of so many Shiite-dominated factions as an Iranian-led occupation by Sayedah Zainab. They blocked streets and passageways with concrete barriers and stern-looking militiamen.
“You couldn’t go anywhere without one of these groups harassing you, all under the guise of supposedly protecting you,” Darwish said. “Whoever carried a gun acted like he was God. This city was not for us who were born and raised here, but for them.”
A seven-minute drive to the nearest town, he added, had become an hour-long odyssey of checkpoints manned largely by foreigners and their local Syrian allies.
Jamal Awadh, a quiet 60-year-old who serves as the shrine's caretaker, said many residents feared what might happen if control of the city passed from Shiite militiamen to Sunni rebels last month.
“As minorities, the old government told us that it was protecting us and that the rebels would slaughter us all with knives if we did not join them,” Awadh said.
A caretaker at the Sayedah Zainab shrine said many residents feared what might happen if control of the area passed from Shiite militiamen to Sunni rebels last month. So far, he said, Syria's new overseers have always been polite.
So far, however, Syria's new overseers have always been polite, he said, announcing over the mosque's loudspeaker shortly after their arrival that residents could visit the grave without harassment. They even provided transportation for Shiites displaced from northern Syria to return to their villages.
“They told us: You are Syrians and you have all your rights,” he said. “They show that they care about the sanctuary as much as we do.”
For Al-Hahi, the collapse of the militias meant that for the first time in years he was able to gain access to a former hotel he owned that was seized in 2012 by the commander of an Iranian-backed Syrian militia, the Abu Fadhl Al-Abbass Brigade was.
When Al-Hahi's brothers pleaded to regain control of the building, the commander threatened to shoot them, Al-Hahi said.
“Their commander kicked everyone out, sold the hotel furniture and got into their headquarters,” Al-Hahi said, adding that he never received any compensation.
Al-Hahi has his building back, but now he has to deal with boxes of weapons and ammunition left in the basement after the militiamen fled. Fearing looters, he welded the cellar doors shut and urged residents to watch out for anyone entering the premises.
There are plenty of other signs of the militias' presence. Lampposts are decorated with pictures – many now defaced – of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Iran-backed Lebanese paramilitary faction Hezbollah, who was assassinated by Israel last year. Trucks equipped with 50-caliber cannons and machine guns stand as robbed guards on street corners.
A poster of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is seen at the former headquarters of an Iranian-backed Shiite militia group in Syria.
A few blocks from the shrine, behind a high fence and a heavy metal gate, stands a six-story residential building converted into the barracks of the Fatemiyoon, a faction of Afghan Shiites. Abu Anwar, a 30-year-old official in the new government, came with a team of rebels to inspect the site for materials.
On one floor, the remains of a gymnasium and a library containing religious books and pamphlets, as well as posters for Fatemiyoon cadres who died in battle, were discovered. Another had sleeping quarters as well as discarded uniforms and a ceremonial banner with the green and yellow Fatemiyoon logo. In a corner on the ground floor was a shaft that went more than 30 feet underground and then opened into a cave that was probably used as a depot.
“We found so many places like this in this neighborhood, with tunnels connecting to different buildings,” Abu Anwar said. “Every place that wasn’t a business became the headquarters of one faction or another.”
Iran's expulsion from both the city and Syria caps a difficult year for Tehran and the Axis, which has suffered several setbacks since the Gaza militant group Hamas – an Axis affiliate – attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, triggering a brutal Israeli response .
Hamas has since lost much of its fighting ability, as has Hezbollah, the militant and political group in Lebanon that attacked northern Israel after October 7 in a gesture of support for Hamas. Hezbollah was considered the strongest of the Iranian-backed groups, but last year Israel decimated its leadership and destroyed much of its arsenal.
An underground tunnel is seen at a headquarters of a Shiite militia group in Sayedah Zainab.
The loss of Syria, the only nation-state in the Axis other than Iran, could be the coup de grace. Although Assad – a member of a Shiite sect – did not share the religious fervor of his allies, Syria became the Axis testing ground, with dozens of Shiite factions fighting alongside its beleaguered forces even as Tehran spent tens of billions of dollars to shore up Assad's economy. More importantly, Assad allowed Tehran to use Syrian territory as a supply line for Hezbollah and to use other militias in regional conflicts against Israel and the United States.
Iran's leaders have tried to downplay the impact of Assad's defeat. In a lengthy speech last month, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the United States and Israel of being behind Assad's overthrow but insisted the axis had not been weakened.
“The more pressure you put on it, the stronger it gets,” he said. “The more you fight it, the more widespread it becomes.”
Special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report.