https://www.annahar.com/article/773715
https://www.almarkazia.com/ar/news/show/16027
13 Mar 2018:
Hezbollah Sec Gen. Nasrallah: “we’re in Syria not for the sake of Assad, rather for spreading Shiism.. Shiites are now at the apogee of their power.. the Vilayet-e-Faqih trumps the Lebanese Constitution any time.. Aoun is a grandchild of Ali..” and other gems.
https://twitter.com/IranianForum/status/928589006023090177
9 Nov 2017: Revolutionary Guards' affiliated website: Netanyahu's nightmare comes true as the land corridor from Tehran to the Mediterranean Sea is now secured
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/906108620844273664
Sep 2017: Iran #IRGC Brig.Gen. Hossein Hamedani:"We created Basij force in Syria: 70,000 fighters, 30,000 of them were trained in Iran."(Eng subtitle)
http://ummid.com/news/2016/December/18.12.2016/iranian-cleric-on-aleppo-victory.html
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/12/17/Iran-sermon-Muslims-defeated-the-infidels-in-Aleppo.html
16 Dec 2016:
Tehran Friday prayers cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, claimed a military victory in Aleppo, applauding what he commended as “Aleppo triumph” as a victory of the “Muslims over the Infidels”, according to various Iranian state run controlled media outlets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0EjGhOlo1w
May 2011: Syrian people are taking movie of IRGC in Syria
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/12/16/world/prominent-shiite-cleric-backs-jihadists-fighting-in-syria/#.VoKlkPHFscg
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/07/syria--jihad-fatwas-shiite-clergy-iran-iraq.html#ixzz4Abglv5KR
July 29, 2013: "This fatwa has been published on the official Facebook page of Ayatollah Seyed Kazem Haeri in the form of a response to a request for permission to travel to Syria for the purpose of defending the burial site of Zainab, the daughter of the third Shiite Imam, without parental permission. Haeri found this action permissible and stated that parental permission for such matters is unnecessary. Previously, Ayatollah Seyed Mohammad Sadegh Rouhani, a prominent clergyman from the Qom seminary, had also legitimized jihad in Syria for the purpose of protecting Shiite holy sites. He labeled individuals killed for this deed as martyrs. These fatwas have led to the opening of official registration sites in Iran for the purpose of traveling to participate in jihad in Syria."
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/08/iran-iraq-clerics-consensus.html#ixzz4QGbTJ36x
10 August 2013:
Ayatollah Seyed Kazem al-Haeri represents the Iranian position, which supports the Shiite militias in Iraq.
Haeri is an Iranian cleric who studied in Najaf and now lives in Qom.
He established an office in Najaf, and he has an intimate relationship
with the Mahdi Army and Asaib Ahl al-Haq. Qais al-Khazali, the leader of
Asaib Ahl al-Haq, is one of his followers, and Haeri has issued a number of fatwas in support of the work carried out by the armed militias in Iraq since their inception.
At
the media level, the Iranian Arabic channels have long used Sayyed
Kamal al-Haidari to spread Iran's interpretation of Shiism in the Arab
arena. Haidari would use the approach of religious protests to respond
to Sunni beliefs, especially those of the Salafists and Wahhabis, who
are the religious opponents of Shiites in general and the Iranian regime
in particular.
In his recent video episodes, Haidari began his scathing criticisms of the Najaf authorities ...
A source close to Haidari told Al-Monitor that
Haidari is in contact with Qassem Soleimani, an official appointed by
Khamenei for Iraqi affairs, and that Khazali is also in contact with
Haidari. This explains Haidari’s recent position, which shows Iran’s
discontent with the Najaf positions against Shiite intervention — and in
particular that of Iraqi militias — in the Syrian events.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-vocabulary-of-sectarianism
On November 5, 2013, Grand Ayatollah Haeri issued the first publicly available fatwa to cast Syrian rebels as "infidels" and called on followers to fight them in a jihad. Yet, the Haeri fatwa highlights an ironic incongruity. Another popular term used by Shiite jihadis for their Sunni enemies has been "takfiri." A takfiri is a Muslim who declares another Muslim as an infidel. This declaration allows for the accused to be killed.
On November 5, 2013, Grand Ayatollah Haeri issued the first publicly available fatwa to cast Syrian rebels as "infidels" and called on followers to fight them in a jihad. Yet, the Haeri fatwa highlights an ironic incongruity. Another popular term used by Shiite jihadis for their Sunni enemies has been "takfiri." A takfiri is a Muslim who declares another Muslim as an infidel. This declaration allows for the accused to be killed.
Lebanon's
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has regularly used the term to
describe groups that have attempted to attack Hezbollah and its allies
fighting in Syria. In part, the narrative behind this attempts to show
Iranian-backed Islamist groups as believers in true Islamic unity and
not infighting. Nonetheless, the term is regularly used in conjunction
with Shiite imagery and overtly Shiite oriented sectarian messages.
....
If
rafidha is a go-to term for Sunni Salafi Islamists, then "Nasabi" (pl.
Nawasib) is the favored term in the Shiite political lexicon to describe
Sunni foes. The word itself is a descriptor for those who hate the
family of Mohammad. As Shiite Islam researcher Christoph Marcinkowski
notes, in Shiite jurisprudence those cast as nawasib, "are considered
non-Muslims." Though, unlike the Shiite adoption of rafidha, many Sunni
Islamists would vehemently disagree with this title.
https://twitter.com/amirtaheri4/status/426668173367054336
Jan 24, 2014: Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi in Tehran:Caliph Osman had turned against Islam. Believers had to kill him. Osman followers now fight Assad in Syria.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/qusair-yabroud-shiite-foreign-fighters-syria.html
March 6, 2014: "Among militants faithful to the dictates of the Iranian clerics, there is the widespread belief that the conflict in Syria is an early sign of the appearance of Imam al-Mahdi — an ultimate savior of humankind and the last of the Twelve Imams who will emerge with Isa (Jesus Christ) — and that their duty is therefore to hasten his appearance by spreading more unrest, since al-Mahdi will only arrive in a world of chaos and disorder.
This belief is an interpretation of a Shiite doctrine that states that when the apocalypse is near, a figure called al-Sufyani will start a revolt in Syria and seek to exterminate the Shiites. He will be defeated by the supporters of Imam al-Mahdi, led by al-Khorasani and the commander of his armies, Shu‘aib bin Saleh. Once victorious, Khorasani and Shu‘aib bin Saleh will hand over the flag of victory to al-Mahdi. Contemporary Shiite fighters believe that the rebels in Syria are the manifestation of al-Sufyani and that the velayat-e faqih is, in fact, al-Khorasani (Khorasan is in present-day Iran). Shu‘aib bin Saleh is identified variously as the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or as Hassan Nasrallah, the current leader of Hezbollah. These beliefs have found their way into the core identities of some militias. For example, the Taliat al-Khorasani Brigade’s name translates into “the vanguard of the Khorasani.”
http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13920403000166
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-prophecy-insight-idUSBREA3013420140401
April 1, 2014: On
the other side, many Shi'ites from Lebanon, Iraq and Iran are drawn to
the war because they believe it paves the way for the return of Imam
Mahdi - a descendent of the Prophet who vanished 1,000 years ago and who
will re-emerge at a time of war to establish global Islamic rule before
the end of the world.
According
to Shi'ite tradition, an early sign of his return came with the 1979
Iranian revolution, which set up an Islamic state to provide fighters
for an army led by the Mahdi to wage war in Syria after sweeping through
the Middle East.
"This
Islamic Revolution, based on the narratives that we have received from
the prophet and imams, is the prelude to the appearance of the Mahdi,"
Iranian cleric and parliamentarian Ruhollah Hosseinian said last year.
He
cited comments by an eighth century Shi'ite imam who said another sign
of the Mahdi's return would be a battle involving warriors fighting
under a yellow banner - the color associated with Lebanon's pro-Assad
Hezbollah militia.
"As
Imam Sadeq has stated, when the (forces) with yellow flags fight
anti-Shi'ites in Damascus and Iranian forces join them, this is a
prelude and a sign of the coming of his holiness," Hosseinian was quoted
as saying by Fars news agency.
......
Murtada,
a 27-year-old Lebanese Shi'ite who regularly goes to Syria to battle
against the rebels, says he is not fighting for Assad, but for the
Mahdi, also known as the Imam.
"Even
if I am martyred now, when he appears I will be reborn to fight among
his army, I will be his soldier," he told Reuters in Lebanon.
Murtada,
who has fought in Damascus and in the decisive battle last year for the
border town of Qusair, leaves his wife and two children when he goes to
fight in Syria: "Nothing is more precious than the Imam, even my
family. It is our duty."
Syria's
civil war built upon sectarian conflicts elsewhere, especially in Iraq
and Lebanon, leading to a growing sense across the region that all those
power struggles in individual countries were part of a titanic battle
for the future.
Abbas,
a 24-year-old Iraqi Shi'ite fighter, said he knew he was living in the
era of the Mahdi's return when the United States and Britain invaded
Iraq in 2003.
"That
was the first sign and then everything else followed," he told Reuters
from Baghdad, where he said was resting before heading to Syria for a
fourth time.
"I was waiting for the day when I will fight in Syria. Thank God he chose me to be one of the Imam's soldiers."
Abu
Hsaasan, a 65 year old pensioner from south Lebanon, said he once
thought the prophecies of the end of days would take centuries to come
about.
"Things
are moving fast. I never thought that I would be living the days of the
Imam. Now, with every passing day I am more and more convinced that it
is only a matter of few years before he appears."
http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2014/06/10/news/doc539742bd962d9472168572.txt
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canadian-terrorist-who-was-a-senior-hezbollah-member-killed-by-syrian-rebels
May 16, 2014: TORONTO — Fawzi Ayoub was a hijacker, international terrorist operative and senior member of Hezbollah. He was also a naturalized Canadian citizen, but on Monday Lebanese media reported he was dead, killed in an ambush by Syrian rebels.
The 48-year-old former Toronto supermarket employee, who rose through the ranks of Hezbollah despite his tendency for getting arrested before completing his missions, was declared a “martyr” on a Facebook page filled with photos of him in battle fatigues.
The Lebanese-Canadian had been on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list since 2009, when he was indicted for using a false American passport to enter Israel “for the purpose of conducting a bombing” for Hezbollah, according to his wanted notice.
While several Canadian jihadists have died over the past year while fighting to topple President Bashar Al-Assad, Ayoub is the first known to have lost his life defending the dictator. He was reportedly killed in Aleppo on Sunday by the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.
http://www.blazingcatfur.ca/2014/06/14/todays-multicultural-moment-dearborn-michigan-issues-a-call-to-jihad-in-iraq-women-children-and-the-elderly-excepted/
June 14, 2014: "Sayyid Mohammad Baqir al-Kashmiri is the Big Kahuna of I.M.A.M – The Imam Mahdi Association of Marjaeya – located in Dearborn Michigan."... "The [Sistani's] statement specifically obligates the believers in Iraq who are able to take up arms in defense to do so, exclusively through the Iraqi official security agencies. However, that does not mean believers outside of Iraq cannot participate in such an honor."
http://makarem.ir/main.aspx?typeinfo=4&lid=1&mid=326115
June 23, 2014: Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi's fatwa for jihad against ISIS.
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/565198-hezbollah-mourns-child-soldier
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/565748-in-pictures-hezbollahs-child-soldiers
"In July 2014, Hezbollah buried a 16-year-old fighter, Muhammad Ali Hussein Awada, who had been killed fighting Syrian opposition militants in the mountainous Lebanese-Syrian border zone. The revelation of his age, observers noted at the time, implied the Party of God – straining to hold larger swathes of territory with fewer men – had abandoned its former requirement that all fighters sent into live combat be at least 18 years of age.
Since then, evidence of Hezbollah sending children – defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as all people under 18 – to the frontlines of the war in Syria has mounted steadily. The pro-Hezbollah website SouthLebanon.org, which publicizes funerals of the militia's fighters killed "in confrontation with the mercenaries of disbelief and Wahhabism" – a reference to Sunni militants – has to date published photos of over two dozen "mujahideen martyrs" who appear likely to have been under 18 (see above image).
When the case of one obviously juvenile fatality, that of 15-year-old Mashhoor Shams al-Din, came to light in April 2015, the Party issued a statement denying he was killed fighting in Syria, claiming instead that he succumbed to a "saddening accident" in south Lebanon. Syrian opposition activists had asserted he was killed fighting in Syria's Qalamoun region; the same place 16-year-old Awada was killed the previous year."
July 20, 2014: "Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi issued a fatwa for jihad on
June 23. The fatwa contradicted Sistani's vision in the following
aspects: Makarem linked the Iraqi situation to the Syrian situation to
set a comprehensive fighting front based on the sectarian
conflict; he adopted the style of the Iranian regime by throwing
accusations against the United States and Arab countries blaming them
for the crises in Iraq; he only referred to the Shiite holy sites;
and he called for a general mobilization of all Shiites in the world
urging them to form armed forces along with the Iraqi army, which
implies the promotion of militias.
In a similar context, the provisional president of the Iranian Assembly of Experts, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi —
who immigrated from Najaf to Iran after the Islamic Revolution — issued
a lengthy statement indicating that the Iraqi crisis has three axes:
the United States and Israel; the Arab countries and others loyal to the
United States, specifically Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey; and the
Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, whom he accused of dealing with
IS to control the disputed territories. He also praised the work of
Shiite militias such as the Badr Army, which managed to carry out
military actions in conflict areas with the Sunni-armed groups. He also
accused some Sunni politicians of supporting the terrorists.
It
is worth mentioning that Shahroudi enjoys good relations with Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — he presided over the judiciary in Iran
for 10 years. Several preparations were
previously undertaken for his transfer to Iraq as a pro-Iranian
authority in Najaf, but this did not occur for undisclosed reasons;
probably to avoid collisions with Sistani. Shahroudi also has broad
historic ties with the Islamic Dawa Party, which the Iraqi prime
minister of the caretaker government, Nouri al-Maliki, is affiliated
with. This implies that Shahroudi would enjoy political support in the
event his name is put forward as a religious authority in Iraq."
http://dnai.in/cfvV
http://ibt.uk/A0066MJ
https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/tens-thousands-shiites-worldwide-join-irans-foreign-legion
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4669/uk-iran-british-shiites
http://dnai.in/cfvV
http://ibt.uk/A0066MJ
https://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/tens-thousands-shiites-worldwide-join-irans-foreign-legion
July
29, 2014: "Earlier this month, the Asia
Times reported
that “the [Indian] organisation Anjuman-e-Haideri,
led by Shi’ite cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad, has launched a campaign
to recruit volunteers willing to travel to Iraq to defend the Shi’ite
shrines in Karbala and Najaf.”
Up
to 25,000
Indian Shi’ites have
already answered the call. Their leader, Kalbe
Jawad,
a radical cleric notorious for his anti-Western activities, is
described in a leaked
American embassy cable from
2006 as a “principal agent” of the Iranian regime, which
allegedly pays him “approximately $4,000 per month” for his
services.
By
contrast to this veritable Shi’ite army, Indian authorities are
aware of just 18 of their citizens fighting alongside Iraq’s
Sunni jihadists.
Intelligence sources told the Times
of India that,
unlike their Shi’ite counterparts, these Indian Sunnis “didn’t
come from any extremist group ... but were individually radicalised.”
......As
if to underline that point, a June 23 editorial in Iran’s
regime-controlled Kayhan newspaper boasted that “Iran is the main
threat to Israel, not al-Qaeda. Unlike al-Qaeda, Iran is a stable
power and a threat to Israel’s existence.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0818/Hezbollah-lowers-fighting-age-as-it-takes-on-Islamic-State-video
August 18, 2014: LABWE, LEBANON — Lebanon’s militant Shiite Hezbollah organization has begun sending fighters as young as 16 to the battlefields of Syria, an indication that the Shiite army is being stretched between fighting Sunni jihadis in Syria and a desire to keep a cutting edge in reserve for a possible future showdown with Israel. Until now, Hezbollah had required fighters to be at least 18 years of age. The lowering of the age restriction could indicate that the Iran-backed party is feeling hard pressed as its cadres fight from Aleppo in north Syria to Deraa Province in the south, as well as dispatching advisers and trainers to the new battlegrounds of Iraq.
August 18, 2014: LABWE, LEBANON — Lebanon’s militant Shiite Hezbollah organization has begun sending fighters as young as 16 to the battlefields of Syria, an indication that the Shiite army is being stretched between fighting Sunni jihadis in Syria and a desire to keep a cutting edge in reserve for a possible future showdown with Israel. Until now, Hezbollah had required fighters to be at least 18 years of age. The lowering of the age restriction could indicate that the Iran-backed party is feeling hard pressed as its cadres fight from Aleppo in north Syria to Deraa Province in the south, as well as dispatching advisers and trainers to the new battlegrounds of Iraq.
Sep 3, 2014: "Officials
of the Iranian regime's network of groups in Britain have called upon
British Shi'ites to join the jihad against Sunni Islamist forces in
Iraq.
The
Ahlul Bayt Islamic Mission [AIM], one of the most prominent Shi'ite
organizations in Britain, has published on its website an "Urgent Call,"
which states:
"We must be ready to sacrifice, leave everything behind us and run for the defense of truth and its supporters, representatives, and relics. The Jihad ul Asghar (minor jihad) must also be accompanied by Jihad ul Akbar (bigger jihad) so that we prepare ourselves spiritually and deserve the honor of defending Islam. Every man must be ready to join the armed forces and every woman must urge the male members of her family to go seek this noble cause and do anything she can to serve this cause … May Allah (SWT) enable us to put our words into actions and to defend Islam and its principles till our last breathe and drop of blood!"
........
AIM
is a privately-funded group based in London and is the UK branch of the
Ahlul Bayt World Assembly, an Iranian Shi'ite clerical organization.
The Ahlul Bayt World Assembly is managed by Muhammad Hassan Akhtari, a
leading Iranian cleric and one of the founders of the Lebanese terrorist
group, Hezbollah. ......
In 2003, Parto-Sokhan, the official publication of the Imam Khomeini Institute (for which Shomali and Haidari both work), ran advertisements that are reported to have recruited an estimated 55,000 young Iranians for the Iranian regime's suicide-bomber brigade, deployed inside Iraq. More notably, Al-Haidari has also propagated material
published by Liwa'a Abu Fadl al-Abbas [LAFA], an Iranian-run
"international brigade," comprising foreign Shi'ite fighters. Other
officials within Iranian-aligned groups, such as Shabbir Hassanally,
have also promotedLAFA and propagated Shi'ite
jihadist videos, which feature such lyrics as "death does not matter –
in fact, we search for it." Evidently, Iran's attempts to recruit
Shi'ite jihadists are part of a global effort."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/12/iraq-battle-dead-valley-peace-syria
"Estimates
of the numbers of Shia fighters in Syria range between 8,000 and
15,000. Whatever the true figure, the involvement of large numbers of
Iraqis is not the secret it was in the early months of Syria's civil
war, which is now being fought along a sectarian faultline."
"Iraqi
intelligence officials believe Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq is receiving $1.5m-$2m
a month from Iran. "They see themselves as the 'Soldiers of the
Marjaeen' [the ultimate Shia religious authority]," the official said.
"Their power is unchecked.""
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/04/syria-islamic-sunni-shia-shrines-volunteers
June 4, 2013: ... a group named Abu Fadl al-Abbas, which over the past 14 months has emerged as one of the most powerful in Syria.
Interviews with serving and former members of Abu Fadl al-Abbas suggest that upwards of 10,000 volunteers – all of them Shia Muslims, and many from outside Syria – have joined their ranks in the past year alone. The group's raison d'etre is to be custodian of Shia holy sites, especially Sayyida Zeinab, a golden-domed Damascus landmark, but its role has taken it to most corners of Syria's war. It is now a direct battlefield rival, both in numbers and power, for Jabhat al-Nusra, the jihadist group that takes a prominent role among opposition fighting groups.
Word of Abu Fadl al-Abbas has spread to Baghdad and elsewhere in the Shia diaspora. Many of its volunteers hail from Iraq's Shia heartland, where the group started some time last year with a fatwa delivered in Najaf by the renowned cleric Abu al-Qasim al-Ta'ai, who gave religious authority to the Shia going to fight in Syria.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/05/iran-syria-afghan-fighters-brigade-civil-war.html#ixzz44JoFI945
May 4, 2015: "An Iranian government-owned TV station recently aired a documentary about the role of Shiite fighters from Afghanistan in the Syrian civil war. The 23-minute video, "Moalem" (Teacher), tells the story of a Shiite fighter from Afghanistan who has been fighting in Syria for the past three years."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/afghan-mercenaries-fighting-for-assad-and-stuck-in-syria-a-1032869.html
May
11, 2015: In order to prevent the collapse of Syrian government
forces, experienced units from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah began
fighting for Assad as early as 2012. Later, they were joined by
Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Yemenis -- Shiites from all over, on
whom the regime is increasingly dependent. But the longer the war
continues without victory, the more difficult it has become for Assad's
allies to justify the growing body count. In 2013, for example,
Hezbollah lost 130 fighters as it captured the city of Qusair and has
lost many more than that trying to hold on to it. Indeed, Hezbollah has
begun writing "traffic accident" as the cause of death on death
certificates of its fighters who fall in Syria.
....
The
Iraqis have almost all returned home. Rather than fighting themselves,
they largely control the operations from the background. The Iraqi
militia Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, for example, organizes the deployment of
Pakistani volunteers in Syria. But no ethnic group is represented on all
of the regime's fronts to the degree that the Afghan Hazara are. Exact
numbers are hard to come by, but some 700 of them are thought to have
lost their lives in Aleppo and Daraa alone. What's worse, most of them
don't come completely of their own free will.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/islamic-state-helps-assad-gain-legitimacy-in-west-a-1066211.html
Dec 8, 2015: "Assad's army isn't just vulnerable, it also isn't strictly a Syrian force anymore. For the last two years, the forces on his side have increasingly been made up of foreigners, including Revolutionary Guards from Iran, members of Iraqi militias and Hezbollah units from Lebanon. They are joined at the front by Shiite Afghans from the Hazara people, up to 2 million of whom live in Iran, mostly as illegal immigrants. They are forcibly conscripted in Iranian prisons and sent to Syria -- according to internal Iranian estimates, there are between 10,000 and 20,000 of them fighting in the country. The situation leads to absurd scenes: In the southern Syrian town of Daraa, rebels began desperately searching for Persian interpreters after an offensive of 2,500 Afghans suddenly began approaching.
It is the first international Shiite jihad in history, one which has been compensating for the demographic inferiority of Assad's troops since 2012. The alliance has prevented Assad's defeat, but it hasn't been enough for victory either. Furthermore, the orders are no longer coming exclusively from the Syrian officer corps. Iranian officers control their own troops in addition to the Afghan units, and they plan offensives that also involve Syrian soldiers. Hezbollah commanders coordinate small elite units under their control. Iraqis give orders to Iraqi and Pakistani militia groups. And the Russians don't let anyone tell them what to do."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/04/these-little-noticed-foreign-fighters-may-be-tipping-the-balance-in-syria/
"Some of the efforts by Shiite Islamist groups echoes that done by Sunni groups. For example, Shiite Islamist groups use social media to recruit potential fighters: Potential fighters might be recruited directly on a social network like Facebook or directed to a phone number where they are given a brief interview.
"It's both shocking and unnerving that while ISIS pages have been effectively targeted by Facebook, [pages related to Shiite groups like Hezbollah] have not only been left up, but more have been created," Smyth writes in an e-mail to The Post, using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State. "It certainly demonstrates a myopia in terms of focusing on extremist groups."
Smyth estimates there are around 5,000-7,000 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in Syria at any one time and an additional 5,000-10,000 Iraqi Shiite fighters in the country, though he emphasizes that finding accurate figures for Shiite foreign fighters in the country is exceptionally hard. The number of Shiite Afghan fighters is smaller, probably in the hundreds, Smyth says, and there are probably a few thousand members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps there.
These figures are comparable, though lower, than the number of foreign fighters estimated to have joined Sunni Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq, which is estimated to be around 20,000 in total."
http://www.ibtimes.com/iraqi-shiite-militias-fighting-isis-are-using-social-media-recruit-foreign-fighters-1844118
https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/from-karbala-to-sayyida-zaynab-iraqi-fighters-in-syrias-shia-militias
"As the sectarian nature of Syria’s civil war grows, the theme of a larger pan-Shi`a struggle supportive of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad against radical Sunni elements is quickly becoming the norm. Reports have surfaced of Afghan Shi`a possibly fighting with pro-Assad militia organizations,[1] as well as a Shi`a fighter from the Ivory Coast.[2] Nevertheless, it is Iraqi Shi`a groups and individuals, mainly from Iranian-backed groups, that have sent the majority of militiamen to fight for al-Assad in Syria."
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
"Major General Qasem Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, which handles IRGC missions abroad, regularly visits Syria, where he is seen rallying his soldiers and their fellow fighters. A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria. The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list. The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria."
Dec 8, 2015: "Assad's army isn't just vulnerable, it also isn't strictly a Syrian force anymore. For the last two years, the forces on his side have increasingly been made up of foreigners, including Revolutionary Guards from Iran, members of Iraqi militias and Hezbollah units from Lebanon. They are joined at the front by Shiite Afghans from the Hazara people, up to 2 million of whom live in Iran, mostly as illegal immigrants. They are forcibly conscripted in Iranian prisons and sent to Syria -- according to internal Iranian estimates, there are between 10,000 and 20,000 of them fighting in the country. The situation leads to absurd scenes: In the southern Syrian town of Daraa, rebels began desperately searching for Persian interpreters after an offensive of 2,500 Afghans suddenly began approaching.
It is the first international Shiite jihad in history, one which has been compensating for the demographic inferiority of Assad's troops since 2012. The alliance has prevented Assad's defeat, but it hasn't been enough for victory either. Furthermore, the orders are no longer coming exclusively from the Syrian officer corps. Iranian officers control their own troops in addition to the Afghan units, and they plan offensives that also involve Syrian soldiers. Hezbollah commanders coordinate small elite units under their control. Iraqis give orders to Iraqi and Pakistani militia groups. And the Russians don't let anyone tell them what to do."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/02/04/these-little-noticed-foreign-fighters-may-be-tipping-the-balance-in-syria/
"Some of the efforts by Shiite Islamist groups echoes that done by Sunni groups. For example, Shiite Islamist groups use social media to recruit potential fighters: Potential fighters might be recruited directly on a social network like Facebook or directed to a phone number where they are given a brief interview.
"It's both shocking and unnerving that while ISIS pages have been effectively targeted by Facebook, [pages related to Shiite groups like Hezbollah] have not only been left up, but more have been created," Smyth writes in an e-mail to The Post, using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State. "It certainly demonstrates a myopia in terms of focusing on extremist groups."
Smyth estimates there are around 5,000-7,000 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in Syria at any one time and an additional 5,000-10,000 Iraqi Shiite fighters in the country, though he emphasizes that finding accurate figures for Shiite foreign fighters in the country is exceptionally hard. The number of Shiite Afghan fighters is smaller, probably in the hundreds, Smyth says, and there are probably a few thousand members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps there.
These figures are comparable, though lower, than the number of foreign fighters estimated to have joined Sunni Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq, which is estimated to be around 20,000 in total."
http://www.ibtimes.com/iraqi-shiite-militias-fighting-isis-are-using-social-media-recruit-foreign-fighters-1844118
"Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iranian proxy militia active in both Syria and Iraq that was formed in 2013, began posting online recruiting propaganda aimed at Pakistani Shiites in September. In June, 25,000 Indian Shiites
enlisted in the Delhi-based Anjuman-e-Haidari organization,
volunteering to fight in Iraq. It is unclear how many actually made the
journey.
Each
militia could have dozens of different Facebook pages, Twitter handles,
YouTube accounts and even official websites where it posts news,
photographs and videos of recent operations, so-called martyr
announcements and propaganda posters. Within that onslaught of
propaganda -- replete with content that sometimes rivals that of the Islamic State group
in brutality -- are email addresses and even phone numbers for
recruiters, making it easy for anybody interested to reach someone who
can get them started.
Last
month, the Iranian proxy militia Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada posted a
photo to its official Facebook page honoring four militia martyrs while
hundreds of presumably Iraqi Shiites rallying below the group’s flag.
The fine print at the bottom of the photo said, “For enrollment to
defend the holy sites ... call the following number.”"
https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/from-karbala-to-sayyida-zaynab-iraqi-fighters-in-syrias-shia-militias
"As the sectarian nature of Syria’s civil war grows, the theme of a larger pan-Shi`a struggle supportive of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad against radical Sunni elements is quickly becoming the norm. Reports have surfaced of Afghan Shi`a possibly fighting with pro-Assad militia organizations,[1] as well as a Shi`a fighter from the Ivory Coast.[2] Nevertheless, it is Iraqi Shi`a groups and individuals, mainly from Iranian-backed groups, that have sent the majority of militiamen to fight for al-Assad in Syria."
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
"Major General Qasem Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, which handles IRGC missions abroad, regularly visits Syria, where he is seen rallying his soldiers and their fellow fighters. A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria. The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list. The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria."
Major
General Qasem Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, which handles
IRGC missions abroad, regularly visits Syria, where he is seen rallying his soldiers and their fellow fighters.
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
Major
General Qasem Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, which handles
IRGC missions abroad, regularly visits Syria, where he is seen rallying his soldiers and their fellow fighters.
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
Major
General Qasem Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, which handles
IRGC missions abroad, regularly visits Syria, where he is seen rallying his soldiers and their fellow fighters.
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
Major
General Qasem Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, which handles
IRGC missions abroad, regularly visits Syria, where he is seen rallying his soldiers and their fellow fighters.
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
Major
General Qasem Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, which handles
IRGC missions abroad, regularly visits Syria, where he is seen rallying his soldiers and their fellow fighters.
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
A stream of senior Iranian and Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Syria. The FSA’s Major Abu Osama Al Jolani said his forces hold the bodies of two Iranian commanders killed in fighting in Quneitra, southern Syria.
The coverage of these forces in the mainstream press receives a fraction of the attention Sunni foreign fighters receive, such as those from Jabhat Al Nusra, despite some of these groups, including both Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, appearing on the US foreign terror organisations list.
The US government designated the IRGC and its Quds Force a concern for the proliferation of terrorism in 2007. The role of these forces within the Syrian conflict has been tracked by Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland, who has issued a detailed report on the Shia jihad in Syria.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shia-jihad-and-death-syria-s-army-1508759016#sthash.Peyh2ctR.dpuf
Philip Smyth's report on Shia jihad in Syria:
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PolicyFocus138_Smyth-2.pdf
https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/shia-holy-war-and-irans-jihadist-empire/
"Iran’s level of control can be seen in the logistics: The Shi’a fighters are often taken from Iraq to Iran for training before being deployed in Syria, and the dead are taken back to Iraq via Iran.
While Sayida Zaynab has strategic value, the overwhelming justification for the presence of the Shi’a jihadists has been religious and defensive, with memories of the destruction of the Askari Mosque fresh among Shi’ites. Some have even called the Shi’a jihad in defence of Assad al-Difa al-Muqaddas (the Sacred Defence), a charged label usually given to the war with Saddam Hussein that nearly undid the clerical regime.
Sayida Zaynab “has been a regional focal point for Iran’s attempt to extend its religious and political influence among Shi’ites,” Smyth writes, and has been a centre of recruitment for Iran’s intelligence services since the early 1980s, using the cover of religious pilgrimages to facilitate the travel of especially-Saudi Shi’ites to training camps in Lebanon and Iran. Indeed, a number of the Saudi Hizballah members who carried out the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing were recruited from Sayida Zaynab. (That terror attack, “planned, funded, and sponsored by the senior leadership” in Iran, was directed from the Iranian Embassy in Damascus. The Assad regime’s role is uncertain, though the evidence of it being an accomplice after the fact is strong, and al-Qaeda also played “some role, as yet unknown“.)"
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21647367-shia-militias-are-proliferating-middle-east-shia-crescendo
March 28, 2015: In
Iraq the fighting is being co-ordinated mainly by Iran, notably by
Qassem Suleimani, the chief of Iran’s elite al-Quds branch of the
Revolutionary Guard. In Syria Iranians have helped train the
paramilitary National Defence Force (NDF), which musters some 100,000
fighters from various sects. They also helped create Shia militias made
up of foreign fighters and joint command centres in Iraq and Syria. The
links between militias are fluid, with members moving from one to
another. The Abo Fadl Al-Abbas militia in Syria, for instance, is headed
by Aws al-Khafaji, an Iraqi Shia who crossed into Syria after American
troops toppled Saddam.
Many
Shia militias claim simply to be defending Shia holy sites. In his
office in the Baghdad district of Karrada, Mr Khafaji claims his men in
Syria are not fighting for Mr Assad. But the militias’ role goes far
beyond the shrines. Hizbullah people make no bones about controlling
southern Syria, on the Israeli border. They hint that the land will not
be given back to Mr Assad. A Hizbullah commander says that in Syria
Hizbullah calls the shots. “Each country is a separate operation, but
the goal is one,” says a commander of a militia brigade in Syria. Mr
Khafaji hopes eventually for “a Guards of the Shia Revolution, one force
across the whole region.”
That
may be fanciful. Hizbullah fighters are contemptuous of their Shia
comrades elsewhere. “Hizbullah follows the Koran; our men have a role,
tactics and a plan,” says the brigade commander. He calls some Iraqi
militias “extremists” and criticises their brutality.
Distrust
between Shia militias and some of their allies is rife, partly because
of sectarian differences. Hizbullah says that, in some cases, Mr Assad’s
Sunni pilots have bombed the positions of their Shia allies. Western
governments have generally viewed Shia militias as less of a worry than
their Sunni counterparts, though they are often as bloody. One reason is
that they do not yet target Westerners. Nonetheless, Shia militias are
exacerbating violence across the region. Though Iran does also back some
non-Shia or mixed groups, including the Iraqi Kurds, Palestine’s Hamas
and the NDF, its actions are generally becoming more sectarian.
The
ubiquity of Iranian proxies across the Middle East places America in an
awkward position. In Iraq, its air strikes are supporting the Shia
militias fighting in Tikrit. In Yemen, though, America is offering
logistical and intelligence support to Saudi-led forces against Shia
Houthis.
Iran
and its proxies risk spreading themselves too thin. Sunnis outnumber
Shias by nine to one. Disgruntlement is rising, and not just among
Sunnis. On March 13th Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s leading Shia
cleric, warned Iran not to forget that Iraq is an independent state.
https://twitter.com/miirwais/status/625018303765970944
July 23, 2015: Iran accused of sending Afghan Prisoners to Syrian war. So far, 700 Afghan Hazaras have been killd fighting for Assad
https://twitter.com/miirwais/status/625018303765970944
July 23, 2015: Iran accused of sending Afghan Prisoners to Syrian war. So far, 700 Afghan Hazaras have been killd fighting for Assad
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/05/iran-recruits-afghan-refugees-fight-save-syrias-bashar-al-assad
Nov 5, 2015:The Fatemioun military division of Afghan refugees living in Iran and Syria is now the second largest foreign military contingent fighting in support of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, after the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
Iranian state-affiliated agencies reported in May that at least 200 Fatemioun members had been killed in Syria since the beginning of the war. How many more have died since is not clear.
....
Recruitment is taking place on a daily basis in Mashhad and Qom, two Iranian cities with the largest population of Afghan refugees. Mashhad, the second most populous city in Iran, is only three hours’ drive from the country’s border with Afghanistan.
Iran is also accepting Afghans below the age of 18 provided they have written permission from their parents, the Guardian has learned. At least one 16-year-old Iran-based Afghan refugee was killed in Syria earlier this autumn. The rising number of funerals in Iran is a tangible sign revealing a greater involvement in the Syrian conflict in the wake of the Russian airstrikes.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/how-iran-is-building-its-syrian-hezbollah#.Vt8mwMIgsHk.twitter
"Unlike Alawite, Christian, or even Sunni supporters of Assad, nearly all Shiite militiamen who die are remembered less for preserving the Assad regime than for defending the sacred Sayyeda Zainab shrine, south of Damascus. This narrative legitimizes their status as holy warriors and helps Iran lure other Shiite foreign fighters to the Syrian conflict.
In many cases, death notices for Syrian Shiite militiamen do not even detail whether they were killed fighting with established groups or subgroups. Instead, only the fighter's name, the Hezbollah banner, Assad's flag, and the golden dome of Sayyeda Zainab are present."
....
"To demonstrate its transnational status, following the Islamic State's (IS's) June 2014 conquest of Mosul, Liwa Dhulfiqar added "al-Mudafaan al-Muqaddasat fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham" (Defender of Holy Sites in Iraq and the Levant) to its name. A few months later, a number of Liwa Dhulfiqar's leading members, including its press secretary, began sporting the uniforms of Qaeda Quwat Abu Fadl al-Abbas (QQAFA), an Iraq-based Shiite militia and Iranian proxy formed from splinter elements originating in Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. Still, Liwa Dhulfiqar maintained public links to Assad's security apparatus through its Syria commander, Haidar al-Jabbouri (aka Abu Shahid). It also claimed belonging to a Syrian pro-Assad group called Quwat Dira al-Watan (Forces of the Shield of the Nation), which includes a collection of localized, often sectarian militias spread throughout Syria.
Like Liwa Dhulfiqar, the LAFA offshoot LAAG added "fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham" to its name. However, it held a far more formal alliance with an Iraqi group. When LAAG first announced its existence in late 2013, the group's fighters were often seen with advisors from Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a stalwart Iraqi Shiite proxy of Iran. By early 2014, LAAG had built a recruitment network within Iraq, and after IS took Mosul, LAAG started an Iraq branch. On January 5, 2016, LAAG announced that after "negotiations" it had joined with Harakat al-Abdal, a longstanding Iranian-linked group in southern Iraq that first publicly announced its own militia following IS's 2014 onslaught in Iraq. The group has adopted absolute velayat-e faqih and has close links to the Iraqi Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) and Badr Organization."
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13941030000680
http://www.ibtimes.com/iran-preparing-armageddon-islamic-republic-backs-shiites-syria-iraq-afghanistan-2267065
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160115-irans-revolutionary-guards-we-have-armed-200000-fighters-in-the-region/
Jan 14, 2016:
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have equipped nearly 200,000
young men with arms in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in
order to face terrorism, General Commander Major General Mohammad Ali
Jafari said.
In
a speech during the memorial service of one of the Iranians killed in
Syria, Jafari said: “The current developments in the region, the
formation of Daesh and Takfiri groups, and the events that occurred in
the past years are paving the ground for the emergence of Imam Mahdi,
and you can now see the positive results in the readiness of nearly
200,000 young armed in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.”
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/iran-foreign-legion-leans-afghan-shia-syria-war-160122130355206.html
January 22, 2016:"Five days ago, four Afghan Shia fighters were captured in southern rural Aleppo. In addition to Iranian fighters, there are also militia fighters from Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan, and recently China," Anas al-Abdah, the secretary of the opposition Syrian Coalition's political committee, told Al Jazeera.
....
A report by Iran's Mashregh News, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, said that the Fatemiyon force comprises some 20,000 fighters. More than 200 of them, it added, have been killed in battles across Syria since 2013.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/01/lebanon-hezbollah-teenagers-jihad-syria.html
Jan 28, 2016: Hezbollah child soldier: What is happening in Syria today is a repetition of the battle of Karbala.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/29/iran-sending-thousands-afghans-fight-syria
29 Jan 2016: Two Afghan boys, a 16-year-old and the 17-year-old, said they had fought in Syria, and another Afghan, Alireza Muhammad, who underwent military training but did not go to fight in Syria, said that he personally knew Afghan boys as young as 12 fighting in Syria in Iranian-organized groups, and that a 12-year-old boy he knew had been killed in the fighting.
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/02/19/iran-training-children-for-war-with-united-states-israel/
17 Feb 2016: Iranian officials have organized the “Sixth National Children’s Memorial,” an event to train children for possible war against the United States and Israel. Around 1,200 children, as young as six years old, in military apparel run around the fields with weapons....Iran has a history of using child soldiers in their wars. They used many child soldiers during the long Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. The Iraqi government established a prisoner camp specifically for the Iranian child soldiers they captured. The Christian Science Monitor wrote about the camp as early as 1987.The Iranian government used children as young as 14 years old to attack protesters in Tehran in 2011. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran claimed authorities armed these children with “batons, clubs and air guns and ordered to attack demonstrators who have tried to gather in Tehran."...One woman said a 12-year-old boy attacked her, speaking with a rural accent. The organization believes officials brought in the kids “from villages far from Tehran.”
“They are very keen to display violence. Teenage boys are notorious for that,” continued Ghaemi. “They are being used to ensure there is a good ratio of government forces to protesters and because the average policeman in Tehran could have some kind of family connection to the people they have to beat up. It’s a classic tactic to bring people from outside, because they have no sense of sympathy for city dwellers.”
Last November, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Shiite militias in Iraq of using child soldiers to fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
17 Feb 2016: Iranian officials have organized the “Sixth National Children’s Memorial,” an event to train children for possible war against the United States and Israel. Around 1,200 children, as young as six years old, in military apparel run around the fields with weapons....Iran has a history of using child soldiers in their wars. They used many child soldiers during the long Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. The Iraqi government established a prisoner camp specifically for the Iranian child soldiers they captured. The Christian Science Monitor wrote about the camp as early as 1987.The Iranian government used children as young as 14 years old to attack protesters in Tehran in 2011. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran claimed authorities armed these children with “batons, clubs and air guns and ordered to attack demonstrators who have tried to gather in Tehran."...One woman said a 12-year-old boy attacked her, speaking with a rural accent. The organization believes officials brought in the kids “from villages far from Tehran.”
“They are very keen to display violence. Teenage boys are notorious for that,” continued Ghaemi. “They are being used to ensure there is a good ratio of government forces to protesters and because the average policeman in Tehran could have some kind of family connection to the people they have to beat up. It’s a classic tactic to bring people from outside, because they have no sense of sympathy for city dwellers.”
Last November, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Shiite militias in Iraq of using child soldiers to fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
http://www.irantracker.org/sites/default/files/imce-images/Irans_Evolving_Way_of_War_IRGC_in_Syria_FINAL.pdf
March 2016: It is tempting to see Iranian activities in Syria through the prism of hybrid warfare and to equate it with Russia’s use of “little green men” and militia proxies in Ukraine. Those parallels are certainly valid and informative, but they likely go only so far in describing what Iran is really up to. The Iranians follow the Russian pattern in requiring their soldiers to strip all identifying insignia and ranks from their uniforms (thereby rendering them illegal combatants under Geneva Convention standards), and they persist in describing their activities in Syria as limited to training and advising. They appear, however, to be creating organizations and standard operating procedures that would give them a generalizable capability to deploy such expeditionary cadre units to a number of states throughout the region, rather than simply trying to manage local and Western responses to a particular conflict. They may thus be attempting to create a new model of warfare that can shift easily over time toward ever more conventional and symmetric operations against regional actors.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/09/where-are-the-syrians-in-assads-syrian-arab-army/
6 Apr 2016:" The video shows the attack on Palmyra, the historic Syrian city reclaimed from Isil for the Assad regime, and as a column of troops heads across the desert behind him a soldier is giving a commentary.
“Despite many casualties, they are moving forward in the advance,” he says.
The oddity is that he is not speaking Arabic, but Persian. The man himself is Afghan, a member of a 10-20,000-strong Afghan army recruited in Iran to fight the war in Syria.
The reconquest of Palmyra was presented to the world as a victory for President Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Arab Army.
.....In fact, it is now clear it was an eccentric multinational force that took Palmyra. Analysis of photographs, social media posts and Iranian, Russian and even Syrian media has shown that the path was led by the Russians, with much of the “grunt” work done by Afghan Shia and Iraqi militiamen under generals from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard."
....
"The Russians played an advance role in the attack on Palmyra. But the final surge came only after Iran poured in troops, a desperate surge in reinforcements after the attack had been seemingly held up.
The army was already heavily supplemented by Iran-trained Shia militias from Iraq, and by Hizbollah, Iran’s Lebanese ally.
Syrian marines were diverted from the defence of Latakia - President Assad’s home province - but suffered a disaster when, according to reports, they were hit by Russian Air Force “friendly fire” and 17 killed.
Units of Syria’s own Iran-trained militias, the National Defence Forces were added, before finally fighters from the Afghan Shia Fatemiyoun Brigade - those seen in the video - arrived.
The Fatemiyoun are largely recruited not from Afghanistan itself, which has a large Shia minority, but from Iran’s large population of Afghan refugees and migrants.
A report by the BBC World Service due to be broadcast this weekend interviewed Afghan refugees in Europe describing how they had been given the choice of being returned home or joining up to the brigade. Instead, they ran away."
http://www.irantracker.org/analysis/hawrey-naghshineh-translation-artesh-deploys-special-forces-to-syria-april-11-2016
11 Apr 2016: "Soldiers from Iran’s conventional military service, the Artesh, are fighting and dying in Syria. At least three members of the Artesh Special Forces were reported killed on April 11, marking the first time the Artesh has sustained casualties abroad since the Iran-Iraq War. The decision to deploy Artesh forces underscores Tehran’s expanding support to Damascus, discrediting reports that Iran might be pulling forces out of the conflict.
This deployment also marks a considerable shift in the role of the Artesh. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its clandestine wing, the Quds Force, have historically been responsible for operating abroad in both military and paramilitary capacities. The Artesh’s mission has been constitutionally limited to defending Iran’s borders. Senior commanders within the Artesh, however, have appeared determined to portray the Artesh as a force capable of operating beyond Iran’s borders in order to protect the interests of the Islamic Revolution.[1] The fact that two of the Artesh’s casualties were relatively junior officers, moreover, suggests that they were embedded at the frontlines with pro-regime forces, similarly to how IRGC Ground Forces deployed during the fall and winter offensives around Aleppo city.[2] "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WESjWZ0BzLA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36035095
15 Apr 2016: As the five-year conflict in Syria grinds on, BBC Persian has found evidence that Iran is sending thousands of Afghan men to fight alongside Syrian government forces. The men, who are mainly ethnic Hazaras, are recruited from impoverished and vulnerable migrant communities in Iran, and sent to join a multi-national Shia Muslim militia - in effect a "Foreign Legion" - that Iran has mobilised to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Many have since fled the battlefield and joined the refugee trail to Europe.
......
Human Rights Watch recently estimated as many as 10,000 Afghans may have been recruited by the Revolutionary Guards. Iran's foreign ministry has denied any Afghans are being sent in an official capacity. The official narrative from Tehran is that they are all volunteers, off to defend holy sites of their own volition. But every week in Iran there are more military-style funerals for fallen Fatemioun fighters. And with a major government spring offensive around Aleppo in the offing, it seems Iran's Foreign Legion will be fighting - and dying - for President Assad for some time to come.
http://www.iribnews.ir/fa/news/1142140/%D8%AA%D8%B4%DB%8C%DB%8C%D8%B9-%D9%BE%DB%8C%DA%A9%D8%B1-%D8%AF%D9%88-%D8%B4%D9%87%DB%8C%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B9-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86-%D9%88-%D9%82%D8%B1%DA%86%DA%A9
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/733671726652002306
May 20, 2016: 15 years old Gholam [Abbas] Amiri, Afghan immigrant living in Iran and Fatemiyojn Div. fighter, killed in combat in Syria.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/753165764975325184
https://twitter.com/Miirwais/status/723159042995175424
April 21, 2016: Iran sends Afghan children (refugees) to fight in
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9xw2VZ6s9M
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3566103/Iran-calls-boys-fight-CHILD-SOLDIERS-Syria-alongside-Assad-s-troops-Shocking-propaganda-video-tells-youngsters-defend-dictator.html
- http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/iran-releases-music-video-encourage-children-go-war-iraq-syria-1557508
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LhqQFAgJ18
A documentary on Iranian regime using children in Syria war campaign
http://yalibnan.com/2016/05/12/18000-shiite-militiamen-fight-for-syrias-assad-report/
May 12, 2016: Around 18,000 Shia militiamen are believed to be fighting alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, which has been ravaged by a vicious civil war since 2011, local sources told Anadolu Agency.
.....
According to Iranian media reports, more
than 400 Iranian soldiers have been killed in the fighting in Syria
since the conflict began in 2011.
The six-year conflict also drew the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which is backed by Shiite Iran.
According to estimates, at least 10,000 Hezbollah fighters are believed to be fighting alongside the Assad forces across Syria.
Thousands of Hezbollah fighters are also
believed to have been killed in the conflict. The Shiite group did not
confirm the number of their casualties.
Iraqi Shiite militias follow the Hezbollah as the most influential groups fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria.
These militias, which are drawn from Iraq’s predominantly Shiite areas of Baghdad, Najaf and Basra, are estimated to number nearly 5,000.
There are also other militias as Pakistani
Zaynabiyyun Brigades, which has more than 500 members and are fighting
in the north of Aleppo, and the Afghan Fatimiyun Brigade, which has about 2,000 fighters in south of Aleppo, Damascus and Daraa.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/12/iran-suleimani-basij-irgc-assad-syria/
May 12, 2016: Hajj Mehdi conceded that Iranian advisors lead from the front, organizing the various militias defending the Syrian regime, and said this arrangement stems from their superior combat experience. “Not the Iraqis, not the Pakistanis, not the Afghans, not even [the Lebanese] Hezbollah — though Hezbollah far more than the others — has experience in breaking enemy lines,” he said. “If the Iranians hadn’t come, these groups would have no effective role.”
....
More than 280 Iranian troops have been killed in Syria since September 2015, according to a May 2 report by the Levantine Group, an independent consultancy that tracks media reports of Iranian casualties in the conflict. In fact, Iran has suffered as many casualties over the past six months as it did in the first two years of its involvement in the war, the report said. According to some reports, as many as 700 Iranians have been killed in Syria since the start of the advisory mission in 2012.
....
The chief reason for Iran’s military intervention in Syria, he said, is its need to defend religious sites, particularly the holy shrine of Sayeda Zeinab, the sister of Imam Hussein, who is deeply revered by Shiites. Indeed, Iranian fighters who are martyred in Syria are referred to in official media as “defenders of the holy shrine [of Sayeda Zeinab],” regardless of where they are actually killed.
Hajj Mehdi recalled that all of his men who were killed in Syria were spurred on by this intense religious devotion. They possessed, he said, an intense desire for martyrdom, a revered status bestowed on those who are thought to have sacrificed their lives defending the oppressed.
https://twitter.com/SamTamiz/status/732484831062286336
May 17, 2016: Families of Iranian fighters killed in #Syria are given... blankets... to honour their sacrifices via @potkazar
https://twitter.com/SamTamiz/status/732512913806774272
May 17, 2016: Iranian journalist Hassan Shemshadi heavily criticises officials for giving cheap gifts to families of fighters killed in #Syria
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2016/0612/Iran-steps-up-recruitment-of-Shiite-mercenaries-for-Syrian-war?cmpid=gigya-tw
June 12, 2016: Iran opened a recruiting center in Herat, Afghanistan, last fall and has persuaded – and sometimes coerced – thousands of Afghans to fight in Syria.
https://twitter.com/worldonalert/status/743559307304837120
https://twitter.com/DavidKenner/status/743844526201126912
June 16, 2016: #Aleppo: #Syria|n rebels killed 15 year old #Hezbollah child soldier Ali Hadi Hussain today. #Damascus #Beirut
https://twitter.com/shiapulse/status/744979716034150400
June 20, 2016: Funeral of Lebanon's Hezbollah 17 years old fighter, Ali Hadi Ahmad Hussein, recently killed in #KhanTouman
http://tinyurl.com/j4ohq5c
تعداد نیروی تشکیلات فاطمیون در منطقه متغیر است. بعضی وقتها تا 12 هزار یا 14 هزار نفر میرسد.
http://tinyurl.com/jv54vfa
http://orient-news.net/en/news_show/116037/0/Afghan-mercenaries-alongside-Assad-in-Syria
https://twitter.com/RZimmt/status/748537889374478336
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/746369204211847168
June 24, 2016: Afghan top commander of #IRGC's Fatemiun Hakim Hoseini(recently killed):We're 12,000-14,000 in Syria,earn 450$/month [reported in Iranian weekly Ramze Obour]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/30/iran-covertly-recruits-afghan-soldiers-to-fight-in-syria
June 30, 2016: Iran’s recruitment of Afghan migrants and refugees within its own borders has been documented. But similar Iranian activities inside Afghanistan had previously gone unreported.
Iran denies using “any kind of allurement or coercion”, or to otherwise recruiting Afghans to fight in Syria, according to an embassy spokesman in Kabul. But a Guardian investigation can reveal both how Iran coaxes Afghan men into war, and the motives that prompt these men to travel thousands of miles to join a battle they might not return from.
http://lobelog.com/militant-clergy-the-future-of-shia-islam/
July
28, 2016: Mohammad Aqamiri might be the first-ever Shia cleric
from Iran who martyred himself in Syria after the Syrian uprising. While
studying and teaching at Qom Seminary in 2013, Aqamiri enlisted in the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and died defending the holy shrine
in Syria. He is not alone. Some 400 Iranians have been killed so far
in Syria fighting for Bashar al-Assad and against the Islamic State
(ISIS or IS). Iran has identified 18 of these as Shia clergymen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/world/asia/afghanistan-syria-army-war.html
July 28, 2016: In interviews in Syria, some of the other fighters from pro-government militias disparaged the Afghans as too young and poorly trained.
...Casualties among the Afghan fighters were high, said Mr. Ghulami, who lived in Iran for 24 years. He said he visited the Iranian town of Mashhad two months ago and saw that its Afghan quarter was blanketed with black banners that signaled a house in mourning.
The size of the outflow from Afghanistan itself has been harder to tally, because the government’s disapproval has led families to stay quiet. Mr. Ghulami, who serves as a local mayor in Jebrail, a Hazara district of Herat with roughly 100,000 residents, estimated that 20 percent of the families there had someone serving in Syria. There was no way to confirm that number: no funerals of Afghan fighters, and no black banners to honor the dead.
http://www.mashreghnews.ir/fa/news/619210/%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%B4%E2%80%8C%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%87-%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%BA%D8%A7%D9%86%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%AB%D8%A7%D9%84%E2%80%8C%D8%B2%D8%AF%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%B4-%DA%86%D9%86%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%86-%D9%84%D8%B4%DA%A9%D8%B1-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A8-%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%AA-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85-%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%87%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%AD%D8%AF%D8%A7%DA%A9%D8%AB%D8%B1-100-%D8%AF%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%87%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%87-%D9%85%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D8%AF%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AF
http://www.radiofarda.com/a/f2-iran-irgc-falaki-afghans-in-syria-shiites-free-army/27931791.html
http://english.aawsat.com/2016/08/article55356688/revolutionary-guards-plan-stay-quarter-century-syria
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/08/irgc-commander-discusses-afghan-militia-shia-liberation-army-and-syria.php
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/iran-raises-force-deploy-arab-states-reports-160820061102379.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/world/asia/afghanistan-syria-army-war.html
July 28, 2016: In interviews in Syria, some of the other fighters from pro-government militias disparaged the Afghans as too young and poorly trained.
...Casualties among the Afghan fighters were high, said Mr. Ghulami, who lived in Iran for 24 years. He said he visited the Iranian town of Mashhad two months ago and saw that its Afghan quarter was blanketed with black banners that signaled a house in mourning.
The size of the outflow from Afghanistan itself has been harder to tally, because the government’s disapproval has led families to stay quiet. Mr. Ghulami, who serves as a local mayor in Jebrail, a Hazara district of Herat with roughly 100,000 residents, estimated that 20 percent of the families there had someone serving in Syria. There was no way to confirm that number: no funerals of Afghan fighters, and no black banners to honor the dead.
http://www.mashreghnews.ir/fa/news/619210/%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%B4%E2%80%8C%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84-%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%87-%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%86%D8%AF-%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%87-%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%BA%D8%A7%D9%86%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%AB%D8%A7%D9%84%E2%80%8C%D8%B2%D8%AF%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA%D8%B4-%DA%86%D9%86%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%86-%D9%84%D8%B4%DA%A9%D8%B1-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A8-%D8%B4%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%AA-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%A8%D9%87-%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%85-%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%87%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%AD%D8%AF%D8%A7%DA%A9%D8%AB%D8%B1-100-%D8%AF%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%87%D8%AF%DB%8C%D9%87-%D9%85%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D8%AF%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AF
http://www.radiofarda.com/a/f2-iran-irgc-falaki-afghans-in-syria-shiites-free-army/27931791.html
http://english.aawsat.com/2016/08/article55356688/revolutionary-guards-plan-stay-quarter-century-syria
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/08/irgc-commander-discusses-afghan-militia-shia-liberation-army-and-syria.php
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/iran-raises-force-deploy-arab-states-reports-160820061102379.html
18 August 2016: Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards uncovered on Thursday a plan to form the “Shi’ite
Liberation Army” in Syria under the leadership of Quds Force Commander
Qasem Soleimani to fight on three fronts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
...
General
Mohammed Ali Falaki, who leads Iranian forces in Syria, told Mashregh
News, a media outlet close to the Revolutionary Guards, on Thursday that
forces from the Shi’ite Liberation Army were not only Iranians, but
will include Iranian-sponsored militias in the Middle East.
Hinting
that Iran plans to establish its own militia in several regional areas,
Falaki said: “Iran plans to rely on local forces to recruit members for
the Shi’ite Liberation Army.” The Iranian general has also linked the
establishment of this army with the participation of the Revolutionary
Guards in Syria’s fighting, asserting that the Shi’ite Liberation Army
will remain at the Syrian-Israeli border for up to 23 years in order to
complete the strategies of “Wilayat Al-Faqih.”
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/754640537836224512
July 17, 2016: Grave of Afghan child soldier of #IRGC's Fatemiun brig:Nurmohamad Davudi,15yrs old(2000-2015),killed in Tadmur,Syria
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/777117899970514945
Sep 17, 2016: Afghan child soldier of #IRGC's Fatemiun brig Ali Ahmad Hosseini killed in Aleppo, Syria, buried in Mahdasht, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/796739046949224448
10 Nov 2016: Child soldier Idris Bayati of #IRGC's Afghan Fatemiun brigade killed in Aleppo, Syria buried today in Nadjafabad, Iran.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/799361041843056641
17 Nov 2016: Shiite Afghan combat fatalities in Syria since September 2013: 495. November 2016: 13.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/814795938074009601
30 Dec 2016: Afghan child soldier Mohammad Hassan Mohseni of #IRGC's Fatemiun brigade killed in Aleppo, Syria, buried yesterday in Isfahan, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/814817318425493504
30 Dec 2016: Footage shows Afghan child soldier Hasan Mohseni of #IRGC's Fatemiun in Sheikh Meskin,Daraa,Syria&his dead body near Ramuseh,Aleppo(Graphic)
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/841737768053157889
14 March 2017: Shiite Afghan combat fatalities in Syria since September 2013: 585. March 2017: 3.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-useful-syria-is-practically-complete
While Assad's demography strategy is aimed at helping the regime maintain control over Damascus, Iran and its proxy militias are also very invested in the process. Tehran hopes that the deals with besieged Sunni towns will further its own "useful Syria" strategy, which entails wresting control over a corridor linking Syria's coastal region with Hezbollah's strongholds in Lebanon. As Iran's main Shiite proxy force, Hezbollah has already conducted ethnic cleansing of its own in certain areas along the border (e.g., its 2013 campaigns in al-Qusayr and the Qalamoun region). Also, hundreds of thousands of Sunnis were evacuated from Homs between 2011 and 2014, when a deal was finally struck with regime forces after starvation reached horrifying levels.
As a result of these efforts, the corridor linking Qalamoun to Damascus, Homs, and the Alawite enclave may soon be Sunni-free. In addition to shielding the capital from the mainly Sunni anti-Assad forces, this development would give Hezbollah safe access to the Golan Heights, potentially allowing the group to open another front against Israel. Iran could also use its reinforced grip over Syria and Lebanon to project more power against Israel, whether by supporting Hezbollah in the Golan or increasing its assistance to Palestinian groups like Hamas. Indeed, this corridor should be viewed in a regional context -- it would link Iran, Iraq, and the almost-complete "useful Syria" to the Beqa Valley and southern Hezbollah military stronghold in Lebanon, and Tehran's Shiite-controlled crescent would be whole. (Although there would be no territorial link between this part of Syria and Iraq, preserving Iranian-backed governments in Baghdad, Damascus, and Beirut would allow Tehran to create a political contiguity sufficient to fulfill its goals.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/opinion/sunday/iran-afghanistan-refugees-assad-syria.html?smid=tw-share
Iranian propaganda framed the Syrian war to these refugees as a Shia struggle for the defense and protection of the faith and its holy sites. “The fighters have little or no knowledge of the political-security context into which they are marching,” said Ahmad Shuja, a former researcher with Human Rights Watch. “They do not speak Arabic, most of them have never been beyond Afghanistan or Iran, many are barely literate, most are devout Shiites.”
Iranians and Mr. Assad’s forces used the Afghan recruits as the first-wave shock troops. “We would be the first in any operation,” Mr. Amin recalled. Several short memoirs by current and former Afghan fighters in Syria published on the Telegram app, which Mr. Shuja studied, recount the Afghans’ being sent to fight the most difficult battles and speak about heavy casualties among Afghan fighters and the eventual victory after multiple assaults.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/777117899970514945
Sep 17, 2016: Afghan child soldier of #IRGC's Fatemiun brig Ali Ahmad Hosseini killed in Aleppo, Syria, buried in Mahdasht, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/796739046949224448
10 Nov 2016: Child soldier Idris Bayati of #IRGC's Afghan Fatemiun brigade killed in Aleppo, Syria buried today in Nadjafabad, Iran.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/799361041843056641
17 Nov 2016: Shiite Afghan combat fatalities in Syria since September 2013: 495. November 2016: 13.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/814795938074009601
30 Dec 2016: Afghan child soldier Mohammad Hassan Mohseni of #IRGC's Fatemiun brigade killed in Aleppo, Syria, buried yesterday in Isfahan, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/814817318425493504
30 Dec 2016: Footage shows Afghan child soldier Hasan Mohseni of #IRGC's Fatemiun in Sheikh Meskin,Daraa,Syria&his dead body near Ramuseh,Aleppo(Graphic)
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/841737768053157889
14 March 2017: Shiite Afghan combat fatalities in Syria since September 2013: 585. March 2017: 3.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-useful-syria-is-practically-complete
While Assad's demography strategy is aimed at helping the regime maintain control over Damascus, Iran and its proxy militias are also very invested in the process. Tehran hopes that the deals with besieged Sunni towns will further its own "useful Syria" strategy, which entails wresting control over a corridor linking Syria's coastal region with Hezbollah's strongholds in Lebanon. As Iran's main Shiite proxy force, Hezbollah has already conducted ethnic cleansing of its own in certain areas along the border (e.g., its 2013 campaigns in al-Qusayr and the Qalamoun region). Also, hundreds of thousands of Sunnis were evacuated from Homs between 2011 and 2014, when a deal was finally struck with regime forces after starvation reached horrifying levels.
As a result of these efforts, the corridor linking Qalamoun to Damascus, Homs, and the Alawite enclave may soon be Sunni-free. In addition to shielding the capital from the mainly Sunni anti-Assad forces, this development would give Hezbollah safe access to the Golan Heights, potentially allowing the group to open another front against Israel. Iran could also use its reinforced grip over Syria and Lebanon to project more power against Israel, whether by supporting Hezbollah in the Golan or increasing its assistance to Palestinian groups like Hamas. Indeed, this corridor should be viewed in a regional context -- it would link Iran, Iraq, and the almost-complete "useful Syria" to the Beqa Valley and southern Hezbollah military stronghold in Lebanon, and Tehran's Shiite-controlled crescent would be whole. (Although there would be no territorial link between this part of Syria and Iraq, preserving Iranian-backed governments in Baghdad, Damascus, and Beirut would allow Tehran to create a political contiguity sufficient to fulfill its goals.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/opinion/sunday/iran-afghanistan-refugees-assad-syria.html?smid=tw-share
Iranian propaganda framed the Syrian war to these refugees as a Shia struggle for the defense and protection of the faith and its holy sites. “The fighters have little or no knowledge of the political-security context into which they are marching,” said Ahmad Shuja, a former researcher with Human Rights Watch. “They do not speak Arabic, most of them have never been beyond Afghanistan or Iran, many are barely literate, most are devout Shiites.”
....
Afghan fighters have fought in Damascus, Hama, Lattakia, Deir al-Zor, Homs, Palmyra and Aleppo. In November and December, Mr. Amin was stationed in Aleppo, where the Fatemiyoun Division was tasked with helping the Syrian Army retake the eastern part of the city from rebel groups. He and hundreds of other young Afghans fought under the orders of the Revolutionary Guard.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/923538559801446402
26 Oct 2017: Shiite Afghan combat fatalities in Syria since September 2013: 769. October 2017: 21.
https://twitter.com/SNA110/status/941371789669797888
15 Dec 2017: #Afghan Fatemiyoun cleric Seyyed Nabi Hosseini becomes at least 30th Iran-backed cleric to be killed in #Syria. He was buried this morning with two other Afghan #Fatemiyoun fighters in Isfahan
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/941593046117793792
15 Dec 2017: Shiite Afghan combat fatalities in Syria since August 23, 2013: 820. December 2017: 13.
https://en.radiofarda.com/a/afghan-casualties-in-syria/28959545.html
5 Jan 2018:
More than two thousand Afghans deployed by the Islamic Republic to fight in the Syrian civil war in support of Bashar al-Assad have been killed, a commander responsible for the so-called “Fatemiyoon Division” disclosed, Friday, January 5.
The division is an Afghan Shi’ite militia launched in 2014 to fight in Syria on the side of the government.
...
The IRGC-run news agency, “Defa’ Press” (Defense Press) had earlier reported that Fatemiyoon Brigade was expanded into a Division in 2015 to increase its military operation capability.
“Afghan Mujahidin who were serving in Sepah-i Muhammad to fight Taliban in frontlines, along with members of Abuzar Regiment who fought in favor of Tehran during the eight-year war between Iran-Iraq, formed the main core of Afghan Defenders of the holy Shrine, or Zeinabiyoon Division.
Colonel Hussain Kenani Moghdam of the IRGC has told Al Jazeera: "Fatemiyoon … numbering in the tens of thousands; most of its fighters are already trained in Afghanistan and those that have no training get trained in Afghanistan, and enter into Syria through Iraq or Lebanon."
1 Mar 2018: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on March 1 praised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and said Tehran will continue to support him, despite an international outcry over civilian deaths in eastern Ghouta.
Khamenei's statement comes a day after the European Union urged Iran and Russia to pressure their ally Assad to halt Syria's offensive and heed a UN-declared cease-fire in the Damascus suburb, where more than 500 civilians have been reported killed by bombing.
"Iran will continue to support the Syrian government," Khamenei said, according to his official website. "Syria is on the front lines today; it is our duty to defend the Syrian resistance."
Khamenei called Assad "a great example of resistance and a fighting image," saying "he never hesitated and stood strong: This is extremely important for a nation."
Pakistani Shia fighters in Syria
https://www.facebook.com/Modafaharm/
Facebook page of Lashkar Zainabyoun
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/shia-pakistani-fighters-in-syria
Shia Pakistani Fighters in Syria
https://www.mei.edu/publications/shiite-mobilization-and-transformation-sectarian-militancy-pakistan
Shia Pakiatani fighters in Syria - (detailed article)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQBpFMU_Ye8
Promotional video of Zeinabyoun brigade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqXJJdIppPo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iF6zwKCdGA
Iranian TV Afagh TV Documentary on Pakistani Taliban and Shia fighters in Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9fMMyQOahY
Documentary on Pakistani Taliban and Shia fighters in Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqXJJdIppPo&feature=youtu.be&t=24m54s
Funeral of Pakistani #Zeinabiyoun fighter Syed Adeel Hosseini
https://twitter.com/FuryBlazing/status/886306512213131264
Preview of documentay on Pakistani #Zeinabiyoun fighters in #Syria, aired on Afagh TV Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCRYqSx2df8
Clip shows daily life of Pakistani fighters from #IRGC-backed Zeinabiyoun militia in #Syria's #Aleppo
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=45479&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=c878da720afefb5301f6a34ef3f304b3#.V0vrBJMrK8p
According
to the Zainabiyoun Facebook page, volunteers must be between 18-35
years of age and physically fit. They are offered up to Rs. 120,000/
($1200) as a monthly salary with 15 days of holidays after three months.
Their current strength is estimated to be 1,000 fighters (Express Tribune [Pakistan],
December 11, 2015). Many fighters are from the Shia-dominated
Parachinar, in the Kurrum district of Pakistan’s lawless Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Some are ethnic Baluch are also
fighters, although it is unclear whether they hail from Pakistani or
Iranian Baluchistan (al-Akhbar, March 29, 2013).
The
Zainabiyoun Brigade has been largely restricted to Damascus where
scores of its fighters were supposedly killed while defending the shrine
of Zainab. [3] In another battle on April 9, 2015, another seven were
killed defending the Imam Hasan Mosque in Damascus. The Brigade has also
fought alongside Syrian forces in the Darra region, in southern Syria (MEMRI, May 5, 2015).
The
primary recruiters, financers, and handlers for the Pakistani fighters
in Syria are the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Al-Quds
Force, which back the Syrian regime and have helped secure Shia cities
such as Latakia, Aleppo, and Damascus.
Iran
has previous experience from recruiting Afghan Shia from among the
three million strong Afghan refugees in Iran. Though many of them joined
the war for sectarian reasons, others were offered Iranian citizenship
and handsome salaries of up to $1,100 (Al Jazeera, January 22). They received training from the IRGC in Iran and Syria, and assembled in a separate unit known as the Fatimayoun.
At
least six fighters from the Zainabiyoun Brigade died in fighting in
March 2016 and were buried in the Iranian holy city of Qom (Farda News, March 3). On April 23, in a separate battle, five more Pakistanis were killed and later also buried Qom (Radio Free Europe, April 25, 2015).
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/08/pakistani_unit_of_irans_revolutionary_guards_fighting_in_syria.html#ixzz4bgEJrkhn
In late 2014, the Quds Force formed the Zeynabiyoun brigade after recruiting a group of 50 Pakistani Shiites. While one of its commanders told an Iranian website that the brigade has thousands of fighters, the unit is currently estimated to have around 1,500 fighters in Syria. In December 2014, Iranian media reported about the Zeynabiyoun brigade fighting in Syria for the first time.
The Zeynabiyoun Brigade also has an official Facebook page and a secondary page where news of its activities in Syria and its casualties are posted. A cursory review of public funerals held in Iran for Zeynabyioun members indicate that the brigade has lost more than 90 fighters in Syria. Panjereh Weekly, a publication close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported in July 2016 that 96 members of the brigade have been killed in Syria.
One of the brigade's commanders, Abbas, a Pakistani Shiite, confirmed that he was working for the Quds Force prior to joining the Zeynabiyoun. According to Mashregh, a website affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, the founding members of Zeynabiyoun were Pakistani students in the Shiite seminaries in the city of Qom. Panjereh Weekly has also confirmed that the first group of Zeynabiyoun members were the Pakistani students of Al Mustafa International University.
http://www.memri.org/report/en/print8549.htm#_ednref26
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8549.htm
In recent months there have been reports that a group of Shi'ite Pakistanis called Liwa Zainabiyoun is fighting alongside the Syrian regime, mainly in the Daraa area in southern Syria. According to an oppositionist Syrian website, the fighters are recruited from among Pakistani refugees in Iran.[25] This website refers to Liwa Zainabiyoun as "the Pakistani Hizbullah",[26] though it is unclear whether it is connected with Hizbullah–Pakistan, which was founded last year with the support of the Lebanese Hizbullah and is headed by Hadi Naqvi.[27] The Saudi Al-Arabiya TV channel reported that its commanders are Iranian IRGC officers.[28] The organization's dead are given official funerals in Iran attended by Iranian clerics and regime officials.[29]
https://twitter.com/kheyzaran/status/528191927834136577
31 Oct 2014: Today funeral of 2 Pakistani martyr from syria in Qom, Iran.
https://twitter.com/zaibx/status/536402004290318337
https://www.instagram.com/p/vuisUTsjfL/
http://www.shianews.com.pk/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=12308%253A2014-11-21-13-06-17&itemid=346
https://twitter.com/digarban/status/536515513627971585
23 Nov 2014: Three more
https://twitter.com/TajHydar/status/538401120520241152
https://www.facebook.com/taj.haider/posts/10152861620068750
http://ur.abna24.com/service/important/archive/2014/11/28/654495/story.html
28 Nov 2014:
قم میں آج بروز جمعرات کو پاراچنار کے مجاہد سید زاہد حسین نقوی کا جلوس جنازہ نکالا گیا جو کربلا میں مقدس مقامات کی حفاظت کرتے ہوئے شہید ہوئے۔
http://en.abna24.com/index.php/service/pictorial/archive/2015/01/22/666347/story.html
http://en.abna24.com/service/pictorial/archive/2015/01/22/666347/story.html
22 Jan 2015: Sayyed Habib Shah Towri's funeral was held in Hazrat Masoumeh Holy Shrine in Qom and he was laid to rest there.
http://ur.abna24.com/service/pictorial/archive/2015/04/24/686030/story.html
http://www.rferl.org/content/persian-letters-afghans-pakistanis-killed-fighting-in-syria-for-iran/26977907.html
25 Apr 2015: Iranian
hard-line media has reported that Pakistanis killed in the fighting in
Syria and buried in Iran were members of the Zeynabiyoun Brigade, which
has reportedly been established by Pakistanis fighting in Syria.
On April 9, seven Pakistanis killed in Syria were buried in Qom.
The
hard-line Mashreghnews.ir website identified them as Taher Hossein,
Jamil Hossein, Javid Hossein, Bagher Hossein, Seyed Razi Shah, Ghader
Ali, and Ghabel Hossein, and said they were from Pakistan's Parachinar
region.
Two weeks later, on April 23, Iranian media reported that five more Pakistanis killed in combat in Syria had
also been buried in Qom. The reports said a large number of citizens,
including Pakistanis residing in Qom, had attended the procession.
The
names of the two brigades that include Afghans and Pakistanis have
relatively recently popped up in Iranian hard-line news sites.
Ali
Alfoneh, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies, says establishment of the Fatemiyoun and Zeynabiyoun
brigades suggests that the number of Afghans and Pakistanis who have
joined the fighting in Syria has increased.
Alfoneh
believes that the Afghans and Pakistanis are being buried in Iranian
cities and the presence of Iranian officials and their families at their
funerals is evidence that they have been recruited from among the
country's refugees and immigrants.
http://ur.abna24.com/service/important/archive/2015/05/26/692012/story.html
26 May 2015:
شام میں روضہ حضرت زینب(س) کے محافظ پاراچنار کے رہنے والے شہید ساجد حسین کا بدھ کے روز قم میں جلوس جنازہ نکالا گیا۔
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-pakistan-iran-idUSKBN0TT22S20151210 http://ur.abna24.com/service/important/archive/2015/05/26/692012/story.html
26 May 2015:
شام میں روضہ حضرت زینب(س) کے محافظ پاراچنار کے رہنے والے شہید ساجد حسین کا بدھ کے روز قم میں جلوس جنازہ نکالا گیا۔
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/81140-Iran-recruiting-Pakistani-Shias-for-fighting-in-Syria
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1007694/iran-recruits-pakistani-shias-for-combat-in-syria/
10 Dec 2015: Videos and pictures posted on social media sites say Zeinabiyoun fighters have been active around Aleppo as well as at the shrine near Damascus in the last month.
Based on material posted online, the Zeinabiyoun could have up to 1,000 fighters, estimated Smyth.
......
A Zeinabiyoun image
posted on Instagram shows the crosshairs of a gun on the back of a man
with the slogan “I will kill any takfiri Wahhabis I can find,” in Farsi.
Wahhabism is a strict form of Sunni Islam and the state sect of Iran's
main rival in the region, Saudi Arabia. Takfiris are Sunni Islamists who
brand other Muslims heretics.
“The
message Iran is recruiting with, like it or not, is a sectarian
message,” said Vatanka. “That is a message that is inherently dangerous
and can get out of hand.”
According
to the group's postings on the internet, some of the Pakistanis
fighting in Syria were already residing in Iran, while others come from a
community of Pashtun Shi’ites in the town of Parachinar in the
Pakistani tribal areas.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/03/analysis-shiite-pakistani-casualties-of-the-wars-in-syria-and-iraq.php
"Since the release of the data on Shiite Afghan casualties in Syria on March 12, four more Shiite Afghans killed in combat have been identified, bringing the number to sixty-six casualties. By comparison, only seven Shiite Pakistani casualties have been detected in the Iranian press. This may reflect the significantly smaller population of Pakistani immigrants residing in Iran, which provides Iranian government agencies with a smaller pool of recruits.
In contrast to Shiite Afghan casualties who all serve in the purely Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade, the Pakistani recruits do not seem to have a brigade of their own. The Pakistanis also suffered casualties in both Iraq and Syria – whereas the Shiite Afghans were all killed in Syria – which indicates that they either served in the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC QF), or alongside Shiite militias allied under IRGC QF’s command. This too may be a result of the smaller pool of Shiite Pakistani recruits in Iran."
http://newsweekpakistan.com/the-new-jihad/
Jan 23, 2016: "“We were expecting a muted response, but found that many people are eager to travel to Syria and combat the Islamic State,” says a senior Shia elder who spoke on condition of anonymity. He says the community called for fighters through mosques in Shia-dominated regions in and around Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, especially Kurram Agency, Hangu district and provincial capital Peshawar, to build up its force. “Over 50 people approached us after our initial announcement and told us they were ready to fight,” he added.
Emboldened by the response, the elders decided that to ensure success, they would train their charges before deploying them to Syria through Iran, which he claims is sponsoring them. “It’s a very different war from the one we’re used to,” he told Newsweek. “In Afghanistan, we are fighting a guerrilla war [against the Taliban] and fighters primarily rely on improvised explosive devices. In Syria, however, battles are being fought on city streets and require fighters to be capable of operating small and heavy assault weapons with good aim and sharpshooting skills,” he added.
At least seven Pakistani Shias traveled to Syria via Iran in the first batch, according to locals. Five of them completed their training and joined the frontline, while two fell ill and had to pull back. Of the first five, four have been killed while the fifth’s condition is uncertain.
“This has demoralized people still wanting to reach Syria,” admits the elder. However, he adds, families of the deceased are being compensated by Tehran so they will be taken care of. A second batch of 15 people traveled to Iran in late October, he says, but it is unclear if they have made it to Syria."
http://dailytimes.com.pk/balochistan/27-Jun-16/another-sectarian-wave-expected-from-southwest
June 27, 2016: Intelligence reports revealed the Fatemiyoun Brigade lures potential fighters from Hazara community in Balochistan. On the other hand, the little known Zainabiyoun Brigade recruits potential fighters from Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Parachinar.
Unlike LeJ, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Jaish-ul-Islam and other sectarian outfits, these two brigades have been training their fighters outside Pakistan.
The arrested operatives of the two brigades confessed they were involved in recruiting the like-minded people to fight rival sectarian groups and also target prominent personalities from the rival sects.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/03/analysis-shiite-pakistani-casualties-of-the-wars-in-syria-and-iraq.php
March 17, 2015: The Pakistanis also suffered casualties in both Iraq and Syria – whereas the Shiite Afghans were all killed in Syria
https://twitter.com/SHiaNews_ALerTs/status/577785180246519808
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/578259707841904642
17 Mar 2015: 2 Pakistani fighters sent by
https://www.facebook.com/shiasOfparachinar/posts/802815363137589
18 Mar 2015:
حبیب حسین طوری آف پاراچنار ،
شام میں دفاع حرم مقدس بی بی زینب س کرتے ھوئے شھید ہوگئے ،
تدفین #قم المقدس ایران میں ہوگئی.
شام میں دفاع حرم مقدس بی بی زینب س کرتے ھوئے شھید ہوگئے ،
تدفین #قم المقدس ایران میں ہوگئی.
https://twitter.com/RIranPolitics/status/586251970769453058
https://twitter.com/hanifzk/status/586934209404612608
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/586211198544306176
April 9, 2015: 7 Pakistani members of
https://twitter.com/shiapulse/status/587248868674289664
April 12, 2015: Qom funeral of 7 members of
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/syria-aleppo-sth-rif-list-of-iranians-afghans-and-pakistanis-killed-in-al-eiss/
https://twitter.com/YallaSouriya/status/719967849482100736
April 12, 2015:
http://ur.abna24.com/service/pictorial/archive/2015/04/24/686030/story.html
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/591424389700317184
April 24, 2015: 5 Pakistani members of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2PdK328D4c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRkhyX_0fCU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdXeI1aWpbw
https://twitter.com/shiapulse/status/704931405034340352
https://twitter.com/HasanMustafaS/status/603249915616198658
May 26, 2015: Videos of pro-Assad regime Pakistani Shia militia Liwa' Zainabiyoun
https://twitter.com/ShiaofPCR/status/603430755448922113
http://fa.abna24.com/service/pictorial/archive/2015/05/25/688630/story.html
https://twitter.com/sbelg/status/603325448919977986
May 26, 2015: Photos of funeral in Qum of a Pakistani shia who was sent to fight in Syria by Iranian Mullahs
http://fa.abna24.com/service/iran/archive/2015/06/26/689686/story.html
https://twitter.com/ajaltamimi/status/615545925444894720
June 26, 2015: Pakistani Shi'a fighters from Parachinar who were part of 'Liwa Zainebiyoun' killed in Syria and buried in Iran.
http://www.all4syria.info/Archive/251909
https://twitter.com/shiapulse/status/644423619993473025
Sep 17, 2015: 10 fighters (including commanders) of #Iran-backed Pakistani force Liwa Zainabiyoun killed in #Syria, burried in Qom
https://twitter.com/OSilent4/status/652899520888573952
Oct 10, 2015: Qom, Iran: Funeral for 10s of Afghan & Pakistani fighters recently killed in Syria [Arabic] http://syrian-reporter.net/?p=10885
https://twitter.com/dudi_cohen/status/669194481753788416
24 Nov 2015: Mehdi Houssein Khan from Zeinabioun brigade killed near
https://twitter.com/borzou/status/670696719441498112
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/670659325636059137
28 Nov 2015: 7 Pakistanis of
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/673922305475649536
7 Dec 2015: Another 7 Pakistanis of
https://twitter.com/JNNsms/status/681122446712307713
27 Dec 2015: Tamam Shia Msg Services say Appeal: Parachinar say Mutaliq Syria Jehad say Mutaliq News ko Jari Krnay say IJtinab kia Jaye, Ahtiat Wajib hay
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/692706253294981121
Jan 28, 2016: 4 Afghans(Of
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/700017026358767616?lang=en-gb
Feb 17, 2016: 8 Pakistanis of
https://twitter.com/shiapulse/status/704447097895043072
https://twitter.com/ErshadAlijani/status/705067887757795330
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/706125053080027136?lang=en-gb
https://twitter.com/hanifzk/status/705178884090646529
March 2, 2016: 6 Pakistanis of
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/710137543078055937?lang=en-gb
March 16, 2016: 8 Pakistanis of
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/717752448580993026?lang=en-gb
April 6, 2016: 4 Pakistanis(Zeinabiun brig) and 3 Afghans(Fatemiyun brig) of
https://twitter.com/RaoKumar747/status/722841021818621952
20 April 2016: Sohail Abbas, a Pakistani fighter fighting with the #Zainebiyoun Brigade, was killed today in #Syria #لواء_زينبيون
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/727221014447411200
2 May 2016: 5 Pakistanis of
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/732989889306824704?lang=en-gb
May 18, 2016: 3 Pakistanis of
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/743158535077433344?lang=en-gb
June 15, 2016: 2 Pakistanis, 3 Afghans and 1 Iranian of
https://twitter.com/GEsfandiari/status/747704793897000964
June 28, 2016: Big crowd in Tehran commemorates
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/753526634473455616
July 14, 2016: 9 Pakistanis of
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/753549138713870336
July 14, 2016: Death toll of
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/759382349033406464
July 30, 2016: 2 Pakistanis of #IRGC's Zeinabiun brigade Zinat Hossein,Kheir Hosein killed in Aleppo,Syria,buried today in Qom,Iran
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/771312922345766912
Sep 1, 2016: 3 Afghans of #IRGC's Fatemiun brig, 2 Pakistanis of Zeinabiun killed in Aleppo,Syria, buried today in Qom, Iran.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-afghan-and-pakistani-proxies-in-syria-and-beyond
August 26, 2016: The IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency described the
unit as an elite assault force with over 5,000 young Pakistani Shiite
fighters, though Reuters and other Western outlets cite no more than a
thousand. Many originally lived in Parachinar and its surrounding
villages in northwestern Pakistan, then migrated to Iran or the United
Arab Emirates. While demand to fill Zainabiyoun's ranks reportedly
increased when the UAE expelled some 12,000 Pakistani Shiite workers in
recent years, the brigade's core members came from al-Mustafa
International University, a religious institution that is based in Qom
but has branches in Islamabad and Beirut as well as numerous affiliate
organizations elsewhere (e.g., the Islamic College of London, Indonesia
Islamic College, the Islamic University College of Ghana).
....
In the same July 26 Fars story, one Zainabiyoun commander openly
criticized the Pakistani army's "un-Islamic" character, then proclaimed,
"God willing, the Zainabiyoun fighters will return [triumphantly] from
the Syrian insurrection and will become the Supreme Leader's right hand
in the world." Another commander promised that Zainabiyoun will fight
the "takfiri-Zionist"
enemies upon returning to Pakistan. Such statements point to aspirations
for a future role in areas such as Parachinar, whose isolated Shiite
population has been under pressure from Taliban militants and
government-backed militias since 2007. For its part, Iran has made
significant investments in Parachinar, Lahore, Karachi, and other Shiite
areas of Pakistan in order to compete with Saudi Arabia in shaping
local opinion and woo recruits.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/779300675335364608
23 Sep 2016: 9 Pakistanis of #IRGC's Zeinabiun brig, 3 Afghans of Fatemiun brig killed in Aleppo, Syria, buried today in Qom, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/788063059327713280
Oct 17, 2016: 4 Pakistanis of #IRGC's Zeinabiun brigade &1 iranian, killed in Aleppo, Syria, buried today in Qom, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/796748195699314692
10 Nov 2016: Funeral of 9 Pakistanis of #IRGC's Zeinabiun brig(killed in Aleppo) today in Qom, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/799680287110098944
18 Nov 2016: 4 Pakistanis of #IRGC's Zeinabiun brigade killed in Aleppo, Syria, buried today in Qom, Iran.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/799016186407219200
16 Nov 2016: Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria since November 2014: 121. November 2016: 14.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/803561662041255936
29 Nov 2016: Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria since November 2014: 123. November 2016: 16.
https://twitter.com/tobiaschneider/status/868488131447844864
2017: IRGC convoy - incl Pakistani Liwa Zeinabiyoun and Syrian Liwa al-Baqir - in Aleppo countryside (likely from Khanasir op earlier this year):
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/822175048677081089
19 Jan 2017: 2 Pakistanis of #IRGC's Zeinabiun brigade killed in Aleppo, Syria, buried today in Qom, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/822339120513032192
19 Jan 2017: "Shia owes you today";delivering eulogy in funeral of 2Pakistanis of #IRGC Zeinabiun brg killed in Aleppo,Syria,buried yesterday in Qom,Iran
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/841287857926995969
13 March 2017: Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria since November 2014: 136. March 2017: 4.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/851714638718922752
12 April 2017: Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria since November 2014: 137. April 2017: 1.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/865259768662941696
18 May 2017: 2 Pakistanis of #IRGC's Zainebiyoun brigade killed in Syria, buried today in Qom, Iran.
https://twitter.com/warreports/status/867717087489339395
25 May 2017: 5 Pakistanis of #IRGC's Zainebiyoun brigade,1 Afghan from Fatemioun, killed in Syria buried today in Qom, Iran.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/866792478812155909
23 May 2017: Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria since November 2014: 144. May 2017: 7.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-recruits-afghan-pakistani-shiites-fight-syria-49891267
16 Sep 2017:
Thousands of Shiite Muslims from Afghanistan and Pakistan are being recruited by Iran to fight with President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria, lured by promises of housing, a monthly salary of up to $600 and the possibility of employment in Iran when they return, say counterterrorism officials and analysts....
In Pakistan, sectarian rivalries routinely erupt in violence. The usual targets are the country's minority Shiites, making them willing recruits, said Toumaj. The most fertile recruitment ground for Iran has been Parachinar, the regional capital of the Khurram tribal region, that borders Afghanistan, he said. There, Shiites have been targeted by suicide bombings carried out by Sunni militants, who revile Shiites as heretics.
In June, two suicide bombings in rapid succession killed nearly 70 people prompting nationwide demonstrations, with protesters carrying banners shouting: "Stop the genocide of Shiites."
A Pakistani intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said recruits are also coming from northern Gilgit and Baltistan. Recruiters are often Shiite clerics with ties to Iran, some of whom have studied in seminaries in Iran's Qom and Mashhad cities, said a second Pakistani official, who also spoke on condition he not be identified because he still operates in the area and exposing his identity would endanger him.
Yet fighters sign up for many reasons.
Some are inspired to go to Syria to protect sites considered holy to Shiite Muslims, like the shrine honoring Sayyida Zainab, the granddaughter of Islam's Prophet Muhammed. Located in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the shrine was attacked by Syrian rebels in 2013. Others sign up for the monthly stipend and the promise of a house. For those recruited from among the more than 1 million Afghan refugees still living in Iran it's often the promise of permanent residence in Iran. For Shiites in Pakistan's Parachinar it is outrage at the relentless attacks by Sunni militants that drives them to sign up for battle in Syria, said Toumaj.
Mir Hussain Naseri, a member of Afghanistan's Shiite clerics' council, said Shiites are obligated to protect religious shrines in both Iraq and Syria.
"Afghans are going to Syria to protect the holy places against attacks by Daesh," he said. "Daesh is the enemy of Shias."
Ehsan Ghani, chief of Pakistan's Counterterrorism Authority, told The Associated Press that his organization is sifting through hundreds of documents, including immigration files, to put a figure on the numbers of Pakistanis fighting on both sides of the many Middle East conflicts, including Syria. But it's a cumbersome process.
"We know people are going from here to fight but we have to know who is going as a pilgrim (to shrines in Syria and Iraq) and who is going to join the fight," he said.
Pakistan's many intelligence agencies as well as the provincial governments are involved in the search, said Ghani, explaining that Pakistan wants numbers in order to devise a policy to deal with them when they return home. Until now, Pakistan has denied the presence of the Islamic State group in Pakistan.
Alireza Nader, a senior policy analyst at the U.S.-based RAND Corp., said Afghan and Pakistani recruits also provide Iran with future armies that Tehran can employ to enhance its influence in the region and as protection against perceived enemies.
Despite allegations that Iran is aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan, Nader says battle-hardened Shiite fighters are Tehran's weapon should relations with an Afghan government that includes the radical majority Sunni religious movement deteriorate.
"Once the Syrian civil war dies down Iran is going to have thousands, if not tens of thousands of militia, under its control to use in other conflicts," he said. "There is a potential of Iran getting more involved in Afghanistan using militia because Iran is going to be really concerned about security on its border and it would make sense to use a proxy force."
Pakistan too has an uneasy relationship with Iran. On occasion the anti-Iranian Jandullah militant group has launched attacks against Iranian border guards from Baluchistan province. In June, Pakistan shot down an Iranian drone deep inside its territory.
In Pakistan the worry is that returning fighters, including those who had fought on the side of IS, could start another round of sectarian bloodletting, said the intelligence official.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/922469131642916866
23 Oct 2017: Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria since November 2014: 145. October 2017: 1.
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/939841870858928129
10 Dec 2017: Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria since November 22, 2014: 148. December 2017: 2.
https://twitter.com/cybertosser/status/940565166961328130
https://twitter.com/ZMeryame/status/940534778956271616
12 Dec 2017: Haider Ali Beheshti, a senior leader in #IRGC-affiliated Zeinabiyoun Brigade of Pakistani fighters, reportedly killed in Albuqmal (Syria)
https://twitter.com/Alfoneh/status/945242608007241730
25 Dec 2017: Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria since November 22, 2014: 150. December 2017: 4.
Shia clergy opposed to Iran's intervention
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2013/06/12/syria-inventing-religious-war/
12 June 2013: "Not all Lebanese Shia leaders think it is smart that Hezbollah is tethering itself so closely to the Assad regime. Senior clerics like Hani Fahs and Ali al-Amin have called for a disassociation from the Syrian civil war. Al-Amin has even stated that “Sayyida Zainab does not want bloodshed in the name of defending her shrine, but rather unity and shunning sedition.” And although the most popular Iraqi Shia Grand Ayatollah, Ali al-Sistani, has not spoken out on this issue, he has told visitors that he is worried about non-Syrian Shia going to fight in Syria, as it might endanger the situation of the Shia in the whole region. Even in Iran, some reformists have criticized Iran’s support for the Assad regime and argue that Iran’s involvement will lead to a sectarian war. But these opinions are often suppressed."
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-politics-syria-idUSBRE96J04120130720
18 July 2013: "In Iran's holy city of Qom, senior Shi'ite clerics, or Marjiiya, have issued fatwas (edicts) enjoining their followers to fight in Syria, where mainly Sunni rebels are fighting to overthrow Assad, whose Alawite sect derives from Shi'ite Islam.
Shi'ite militant leaders fighting in Syria and those in charge of recruitment in Iraq say the number of volunteers has increased significantly since the fatwas were pronounced."
....
In Najaf, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who commands unswerving loyalty from most Iraqi Shi'ites and many more worldwide, has refused to sanction fighting in a war he views as political rather than religious.
Despite Sistani's stance, some of Iraq's most influential Shi'ite political parties and militia, who swear allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have answered his call to arms and sent their disciples into battle in Syria.
.............
Answering a question posted on his website by one of his followers regarding the legitimacy of fighting in Syria, senior Iraq Shi'ite cleric Kadhim al-Haeari, who is based in Iran, described fighting in Syria as a "duty" to defend Islam.
Militants say that around 50 Iraqi Shi'ites fly to Damascus every week to fight, often alongside Assad's troops, or to protect the Sayyida Zeinab shrine on the outskirts of the capital, an especially sacred place for Shi'ites.
"I am following my Marjiiya. My spiritual leader has said fighting in Syria is a legitimate duty. I do not pay attention to what others say," said Ali, a former Mehdi army militant who was packing his bag to travel from Iraq to Syria.
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