Sources revealed last week that Islamist rebels had arrested militants from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards near Aleppo, in Syria's north.
A resident from border village with Turkey, who refused to give the name of the village, confirmed that an Iranian had been captured by an Islamist battalion. Another source confirmed that 10 Iranian captives were with an Islamist group in Aleppo.
Sources expressed their surprise that the captives had not been announced by the Islamist groups, and questioned the reason behind not requesting their freedom by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Meanwhile, sources from the Syrian National Coalition denied knowledge of Iranian captives with revolutionary or Islamist groups. The source explained that the Iranian silence is a way to avoid media and public pressure on Iran which might help the rebels to force the Syrian regime to accept a prisoner exchange between regime and rebels.
Iranian captives in North of Syria support the fact that Iran is involved in regime’s war against its people.
Meanwhile, Assad's army, backed by local militia and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, has made steady gains around Damascus and in the Lebanese border areas, but his forces remain stretched and rebels have sought to seize the initiative elsewhere.
Syria's three-year civil war has killed more than 150,000 people, a third of them civilians, and caused millions to flee.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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