Amid news of Assad’s advances in al-Nabk, one of the last rebel-held
areas in Qalamoun, activists reported a mounting presence of Iraqi Shi’ite
militias for the first time in battlefields far away from the Shiite
shrines.
Thu al-Faqar brigade, most brutal Iraqi militia besides Abu Fadhl
al-Abbas, posted online photos and news claimed legendary victories for the
Iraqi militia which has committee two massacres so far in the border city with
Lebanon, killing 50 people at least including women and children.
Syrian Opposition activists sparkled major outrage via social media
against Thu al-Faqar Facebook page, called ‘Al Haidari Soldier’, (Al -Haidari
is one of Ali bin Abi Talib’s alternative names) which has posted photos for an
old man has been tortured and killed by the brigade commander in al-Nabk.
The page reported that the Iraqi commander, Abu Shahd al-Jbouri, has been promoted by Assad
Army to be lieutenant colonel as an honor rank for his priceless efforts in
combating the terrorists in Syria
Assad's military resurgence this year has relied to a great extent on
support from Shi'ite Iran and fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraqi
militias, some of them based around a Shi'ite shrine southeast of Damascus.
They have helped turn the tide against the Sunni Muslim rebels, whose
ranks are increasingly dominated by Islamist fighters and al Qaeda-linked
foreign jihadists.
"In the last few months Assad has been increasingly leaving the
fighting in the urban areas, especially Damascus and its environs, to his
Shi'ite allies," a Middle East security official said to Reuters.
The brigade quoted its name from an Islamic mythology, of the
two-pointed ‘magical’ sword that has come to represent Ali Bin Abi Talib,
fourth caliphate and son-in-law of prophet Muḥammad.
An estimated 126,000 people have been killed and millions displaced by
Syria's civil war, which erupted after a fierce government crackdown on
pro-democracy protests first held in March 2011.
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