Two Iranian commanders killed in Syria

The Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai reported that Tehran would send 2,000 troops to Syria, along with 5,000 Iraqi and Afghan Shia fighters.

Since 2013, Iran has lost senior commanders in Syria’s Damascus, Aleppo, Qunaitera and Hama provinces, according to Iranian media. The unit has reportedly been deployed in Iraq to fight ISIS.

The NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee reiterates that the sole solution for the Syrian crisis is the eviction of the Iranian regime from that country and it urges all legislators, politicians and human rights defenders in Europe, especially in Germany, to act to call off this trip that is to the detriment of global peace and security. Post-revolutionary Iran has been a steadfast defender of “neither west, nor east” foreign policy orientation, which is precisely why the current bandwagoining with Russian Federation in Syria is dictated by the realistic contingencies of the Syrian war. At a conference in Hamedan he said that Iran shared with Syria the experience it had amassed during the Iran-Iraq War, and that if there were Iranian veterans [fighting] in the Syrian army, it would have no problem in dealing with the rebels.

In recent months, a number of Iranians killed in the fighting in Syria have been buried in Iranian cities. Despite the planned talks, Moscow said Wednesday that Washington had declined to host a high-ranking Russian delegation or to send a team to hold separate broader discussions on Syria. A Twitter account associated with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Hamedani devoted the final years of his life to the fight against Islamic State, and “fulfilled his martyrdom wish on the same front”.

The 58-year-old Soleimani, who is forbidden under global sanctions from leaving Iran, has served since 1998 as commander of its Quds Force – a special military division that oversees clandestine operations. At one point there were two million Afghan refugees and guest workers in Iran, majority Tajiks or Hazaras.

“It is no coincidence that three Iranian generals have been killed in just a week”, said Hokayem of the IISS.

Iran has in the past denied sending troops to Syria.

The commanders’ bodies would be buried in Khouzestan province, southern Iran, it said.