London- Two weeks after the announcement on dispatching ground forces missioned for an advisory role in Syria, media in Iran circulated the reported death of a number of the sent troops, who have been killed in battles taking place in Aleppo.
Iranian general and commanding officer of the ground forces of the Iranian Army Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said that his forces are fighting side by side with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in their battle for ideological and faith established borders of the Iranian government.
Pourdastan, after four corpses belonging to his forces arrived to Tehran, explained that the Iranian special units are serving an allegedly advisory role in Syrian battlefronts next to the Quds Force and other groups affiliated to the brigade.
Speaking to IRGC based news agency, Tasnim, on the sidelines of the funeral service of the four bodies that also belong to the “65th Commandos Brigade”, Pourdastan said that his Iranian Army forces are obligated to answer to any call or mission they are assigned to.
Pourdastan repeatedly denied sending whole units to Syria, asserting that dispatched units were serving exclusively an advisory role. However, troopers were forced to engage in defense after a large-scale attack, launched by Syrian Opposition groups, targeted the site at which the claimed advisors were present.
This is considered to be the second time an Iranian military official refers to his soldiers fighting for the Iranian government’s ideology or belief system; the first time being announced by IRGC Brig. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour last February.
On the other hand the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in his Sunday meeting with leaders of the Iranian armed forces, said that what makes the Iranian Army special as to other world armies, is that it has combined both creed and
combat. Khamenei made a clear reference to Iran’s ideological system governing its choices of combat.
IRGC websites mentioned that among the four reported dead members was an army intelligence brigadier responsible for the 45th district in Shushtar and who went by the name of Mujtabah Zou Al-Fikar Nasb.
Tasnim broadcasted visuals of the funeral service which was attended by both IRGC and Iranian Army officials.
In a press conference Pourdastan, yesterday, claimed that Iran is confronting “new winds of proxy war in Syria”. He added that his forces, whom he persistently insisted on being mere advisors, have been conducting a survey on potential threats facing Iran.
According to an Iranian judiciary agency, the primary motif behind sending special operations forces to Syria is that the Iranian Army is looking into military foothold to later provide Assad’s regime leverage in the ongoing negotiations for a political resolution.
The agency’s analysis also pointed out that the Iranian forces could be looking forward to strengthening the regime’s position in Syria in the decided parliamentary elections, which are being run today, conforming that Iranian forces aim at exterminating the presence of Syrian Opposition groups.
Brig. Gen. Pakpour said that Syria is the frontline for his forces in their mission to defend Iran. He added that if his forces had not fought terrorism in Syria, then they would have needed to face it back in Iran.
The Iranian army units sent into Syria were effectively added to the list of Iranian forces fighting abroad without international consensus.