8 senior Iranian army officers killed in Syria since 2013

Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s special operations forces, appears to have been urging on an Alawite militia, which may be preparing to join a Syrian Arab Army attack on Jisr al-Shughour.

“We have sent arms support and advisors to Syria and Iraq and will consider their other requests, too”, he said at a press conference. It suggests that, for now, taking on Islamic State extremists in eastern Syria seems a secondary priority to propping up President Bashar Assad.

The Islamic Republic views the Syrian regime as its main strategic ally in the region and as a part of an “axis of resistance” against Israel. The IRGC issued an official announcement claiming Hamedani had been killed by ISIS on the outskirts of the city of Aleppo (northern Syria).

The Syrian minister has said that there are no Iranian troops fighting in Syria.

“Russia has moved a small but significant military force into Syria, adding a volatile new dimension to Syria’s now four-year civil war”.

“He was in charge of [Iranian] operations inside Syria”, said former Central Intelligence Agency officer Reuel Marc Gerecht. “There is a large mobilization of the Syrian Army… elite Hezbollah fighters, and thousands of Iranians who arrived in stages in recent days”.

Amid reports of a combined Syrian-Russian-Iranian ground offensive in Syria, the West must talk to Tehran to broker an end to the conflict, a senior European Union official said on Wednesday. The objectives of the “enemy camp”, he said, were to restrict Iran’s regional influence, and to weaken Hezbollah, turning it from a military into a political organization.

On Tuesday, two Iranian generals were killed during fighting between pro-Assad forces and Syrian rebels in the city of Homs.

The Quds Force commander is one of a group of Iranian officials targeted by a 2007 United Nations travel ban due to their alleged links to Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missile programs.

“Addressing the religious fascism ruling Iran to answer the call for provision of global security comes on the heels of the regime’s leaders blackmailing the worldwide community by test-firing long range missiles and showing “a deep underground tunnel packed with missiles and launcher units”.

Saoud, the 13th Division commander whose fighters received TOW missiles, said he worked in the same trench with a faction from the Army of Conquest.