Someone told them to surrender. Meathead doesn't seem to understand he'd be doing the exact same thing if one of his generals gave the same order.

The whole Syrian situation is weird. Someone made some deals with some other someones and people should just be thankful if it ended with what seems like (so far) minimal casualities. I mean, the country is probably going to go authoritarian, but at least they'll be alive instead of under constant shelling like some other areas ... unless more fighting breaks out .. which is likely; there are weapons to sell and people to de-populate after all