The Iranian Fars news agency on Saturday quoted an official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as saying that 13 Iranian military advisers were killed and 21 others wounded after Syrian opposition factions belonging to the Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) operations room took control of the strategic town of Khan Touman in the southern Aleppo countryside on Friday.
This toll is apparently the largest Iran has suffered since sending forces to support the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, while in its statement the IRGC urged its fighters not to be affected by what it called the “psychological war” being waged on social media.
In this context, one of the advisers of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with President Assad in Damascus regarding the continuation of his country’s support for the regime in confronting opposition forces.
Fars quoted Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei’s adviser for international affairs, as saying that Iran “is employing all its energies to fight and confront the terrorists who are carrying out crimes against the oppressed people of the region.”
Media activists had published video clips and images on social media which appear to be corpses of the Iranian fighters and militants of the Shiite militias fighting alongside the regime in Khan Touman.
Some of the videos included shots of personal wallets, identity papers and Iranian currency, alongside a number of prisoners from Afghan militias taken prisoner by the Jaish al-Fatah fighters.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
