(Zaman Al Wasl)- Iran’s media outlets mourned Saturday 3 Revolutionary Guards fighters said they were killed in northern Aleppo province defending Shiite villages as death toll rises to 165 in four months since Russia began its air strikes, activists said.
The Russian bombing on Wednesday helped the regime army and fighters from Iran and Hezbollah to break the siege imposed by rebels on the two Shiite villages of Nubul and Zahraa for the first time in 3-1/2 years.
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A senior, non-Syrian security source close to Damascus told Reuters that Iranian fighters had played a crucial role in the latest breakthrough. "Qassem Soleimani is there in the same area," said the source, referring to the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds force responsible for overseas operations.
Zaman al Wasl's source said the Iran's ambassador to Syria with number of Shiite clerics had visited Aleppo late on Thursday.
Since Russia's intervention on its side in September, Damascus and its allies have pressed assaults throughout the west of the country, including Aleppo in the north, the coastal province Latakia and in Daraa, which lies south of Damascus and near the Jordanian border.
In relevant development, the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said on Saturday Saudi Arabia lacked the courage to go through with a plan to send ground troops to Syria, and warned they would be wiped out if they went in.
Jafari's blunt words on the Fars news agency were Iran's first official reaction to a statement from its regional rival Saudi Arabia this week that it was ready to join ground operations in Syria if a U.S.-led military alliance decided to start them.
Iran has already sent forces to Syria to back its ally Bashar al-Assad in his country's five-year-old civil war. Washington and its allies have backed rebels fighting Assad and say he must eventually step down. (With Reuters)
The Russian bombing on Wednesday helped the regime army and fighters from Iran and Hezbollah to break the siege imposed by rebels on the two Shiite villages of Nubul and Zahraa for the first time in 3-1/2 years.
.
A senior, non-Syrian security source close to Damascus told Reuters that Iranian fighters had played a crucial role in the latest breakthrough. "Qassem Soleimani is there in the same area," said the source, referring to the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds force responsible for overseas operations.
Zaman al Wasl's source said the Iran's ambassador to Syria with number of Shiite clerics had visited Aleppo late on Thursday.
Since Russia's intervention on its side in September, Damascus and its allies have pressed assaults throughout the west of the country, including Aleppo in the north, the coastal province Latakia and in Daraa, which lies south of Damascus and near the Jordanian border.
In relevant development, the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said on Saturday Saudi Arabia lacked the courage to go through with a plan to send ground troops to Syria, and warned they would be wiped out if they went in.
Jafari's blunt words on the Fars news agency were Iran's first official reaction to a statement from its regional rival Saudi Arabia this week that it was ready to join ground operations in Syria if a U.S.-led military alliance decided to start them.
Iran has already sent forces to Syria to back its ally Bashar al-Assad in his country's five-year-old civil war. Washington and its allies have backed rebels fighting Assad and say he must eventually step down. (With Reuters)
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