Hundreds of Iraqi fighters enter Syria to aid Assad regime
Photo: Iran has sent aid to Assad in Syria (Getty Images)
Hundreds of Iran-backed Iraqi militants crossed into Syria overnight to assist Bashar al-Assad's regime in combating rebels who have captured Aleppo. Tehran has pledged support for Damascus, Reuters reports.
According to two sources within Iraqi security forces, at least 300 fighters, primarily from the Badr and Nujaba groups, crossed the border late Sunday via a dirt road to avoid official border crossings.
"These are fresh reinforcements being sent to aid our comrades on the front lines in the north," a senior Syrian military source said, adding that the fighters were transported in small groups to avoid airstrikes.
The involvement of Iranian-allied regional groups has long been integral to the success of pro-government forces in suppressing rebels who rose against President Assad in 2011, with these groups maintaining their bases in Syria for years.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that Syria's army is capable of countering the rebels, but regarding Tehran-backed regional groups, he added that "resistance groups will help, and Iran will provide any support needed."
Residents and rescue workers report intensified airstrikes by the Syrian government and Russian military planes on rebel-held areas in the northwest. These strikes include an attack on a displacement camp that killed seven people.
Rebel offensive
A lightning rebel offensive last week caught many in the region off guard, dealing Assad his most severe blow in years and reigniting a conflict that had appeared frozen since 2020, when civil war frontlines stabilized.
Although Russia has focused on its war in Ukraine since 2022, it maintains an airbase in northern Syria. Hezbollah, a key Iran-backed group, has been preoccupied with its conflict with Israel since the Gaza war erupted last year.
The Syrian conflict began in 2011 with an uprising against Assad's rule. Rebels controlled much of Aleppo from 2012 to 2016 until government forces, with support from Russia and Iranian-backed militias, recaptured it at a pivotal moment of the war.
The rebels include major Turkish-backed factions as well as the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda. Turkey also maintains a military presence in a strip of Syrian territory along its border.
Russia, whose intervention in 2015 decisively shifted the war in Assad's favor, continues to back the Syrian president while analyzing the situation on the ground, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Meanwhile, Russian military bloggers reported that Moscow had dismissed the general commanding its troops in Syria.
