DUBAI: Several Iranian soldiers were killed near Aleppo, the Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday, in what appeared to be one of Iran’s biggest losses in Syria since it deployed forces to support Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Insurgents on Friday seized the strategic village of Khan Touman, some 15 km southwest of Aleppo. Dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the battle.
Fars news agency on Saturday quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisers had been killed and 21 wounded in the fighting. The attack on Khan Touman was launched by an alliance of insurgents known as Jaish Al-Fatah, including the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which has rejected diplomatic efforts to halt the five-year civil war.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that monitors the conflict, said that Syrian and Russian jet planes have intensified their bombing of insurgent posts. Jaish Al-Fatah and affiliates have published on social media videos and photos of what appear to be the bodies of Iranians or other Shiite militias who were killed in Khan Touman.
Some videos include footage of their wallets, personal documentation and Iranian currency. There are indications that some of the casualties might be Afghans who are trained in Iran and are deployed alongside Iranian soldiers in Syria. The Revolutionary Guards in a statement on Saturday urged people not to be affected by the rebels’ “psychological war on the social media.”
A top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader on Saturday reiterated Tehran’s continued support of Syria’s president in a meeting with Bashar Assad in Damascus