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Features

Over 2000 Iran-led Fighters Killed in Syria and Iraq

March 8, 2017
Reza HaghighatNejad
5 min read
Iranian forces in Syria are referred to as "Defenders of the Shrine"
Iranian forces in Syria are referred to as "Defenders of the Shrine"
Over 2000 Iran-led Fighters Killed in Syria and Iraq

More than 2,000 Iran-led troops have been killed in Syria and Iraq since the conflicts began, according to a key official.

Mohammad Ali Shahidi, the head of the Martyrs Foundation, Iran’s veteran administration, made the announcement on Tuesday, March 7.

Addressing a conference in Tehran, Shahidi said thousands of men sent by Tehran to fight in Syria and Iraq had been killed, but he did not specify the fighters’ nationalities — though many are believed to be refugees or migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Shahidi's figure was almost double that of the fatality figure he announced in November, though that announcement referred only to forces in Syria.

The Iranian government refers to its forces in Syria as the “Defenders of the Shrine,” by which it means the shrine of Zeinab, the sister of the third Shia Imam, which is located in the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus. Revolutionary Guards General Ghasem Soleimani oversees operations, and fighters are not limited to forces from the Islamic Republic. Afghan and Pakistani paramilitary forces — called “Fatemiyoun” and “Zeinabyoun” respectively — are among the non-Iranians serving under Soleimani, most of whom have been dispatched from Iran. There are also reports that Iran commands Iraqi paramilitary forces, called “Heydarioun,” in Syria. Lebanese Hezbollah paramilitary forces also fight side-by-side with these forces in Syria.

Iranian officials have claimed in the past that the Iranian military presence in Syria functions only in an advisory capacity, though this claim was always disputed. After extensive reports about deepening Iranian military involvement in Syria — including reports about some high-profile casualties in domestic Iranian media — eventually Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, conceded on October 30, 2015 that “Iranian forces are in the Syrian battlefield” [link in Persian].

The “Second Hezbollah”

The main Revolutionary Guards’ base for preparing Iran’s expeditionary forces is Imam Hossein Military Base. It operates directly under the top commander of the Guards, and, until he was killed in Syria in October 2015, Brigadier-General Hossein Hamedani was its deputy commander. According to General Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander-General of the Guards, Hamedani was also responsible for organizing “Patriotic Defense”, a 100,000-strong paramilitary force supporting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The force has been patterned after the Iranian paramilitary Basij Organization. General Hamedani named his outfit in Syria the “Second Hezbollah,” after Lebanese Hezbollah (“Party of God”), and claimed that his forces were active in 14 Syrian provinces, with 42 brigades and 128 battalion.

After Hamedani was killed, General Gholamhossein Gheybparvar was put in command of the Imam Hossein Base. A year later, he was appointed commander of the Basiji paramilitary too.

The number of Iranian forces present in Syria is unclear. “130,000 trained Basijis are ready to go to Syria,” said General Hamedani in May 2014. And, on January 15, 2017, Hossein Yekta, a former Revolutionary Guards commander, claimed that 18,000 Afghans were fighting in Syria. In addition, General Jafari has said that “close to 200,000 armed young men are ready in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.”

One of the most controversial aspects of the “Defenders of the Shrine,” and especially the Afghans who have been dispatched to Syria, is the way they have been recruited. There have been widespread reports that the Islamic Republic has been able to send a large number of young Afghan refugees to Syria by promising them a monthly salary and residency permits for their families. “The fighters say they were paid by the Iranian government to fight for Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, and promised passports and jobs if they survive,” reported the BBC. According to Human Rights Watch, some Afghans have even claimed they were coerced into going to Syria. In a video released by anti-Assad rebels and posted by CNN, one badly wounded Afghan says that he was paid about $500 a month to fight.

Promises and Coercion

Iran has routinely denied such reports. Some Afghan migrants have told reporters that they went to Syria to fight out of religious conviction. But there are plenty of testimonies that give another account. “Iran has not just offered Afghan refugees and migrants incentives to fight in Syria, but several said they were threatened with deportation back to Afghanistan unless they did,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. “Faced with this bleak choice, some of these Afghan men and boys fled Iran for Europe.”

An estimated 3 million Afghans live in Iran, many of whom have fled persecution and repeated bursts of armed conflict in Afghanistan. Only 950,000 have formal legal refugee status in Iran.

There have been also reports that, at least in some cases, Iranian military officials’ promises have not been kept. On February 26, the Iranian principlist newspaper Sobh-e Now published a report about the widow of an Afghan refugee who had been injured in Syria and who had died in a Qom hospital [link in Persian]. The woman told the newspaper that after the death of her husband she received only one month’s worth of his salary. She said that officials failed to help her find a job and that her children were suffering because of her dire financial situation.

Over the last few days, Iranian media has quoted a Martyrs Foundation official, saying that Iran’s High Council of National Security has agreed to grant Iranian citizenship to the immediate family of those who have fought and died in Syria. But the secretariat of the High Council has denied the reports, calling them “inaccurate.”

It is not clear how many of the reported 2,100 troops killed in Syria are Afghans who have been promised benefits. This is not surprising, given the Islamic Republic’s lack of transparency when it comes to its involvement in Syria’s civil war in particular, and about its military operations in general.

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