Iran backed Iraqi, Lebanese Shiite militias deploy to Syria’s Aleppo

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Iran backed Shiite militia
Iran backed Shiite militia

Iran-backed Shiite militant groups from Lebanon and Iraq are deploying hundreds of additional fighters to front lines in the Syrian city of Aleppo, Iranian media and militia officials said Monday, after Syrian rebels breached a government-imposed siege and cut a key government route to the contested city over the weekend.

The reinforcements by at least four groups, described by officials and state media as “elite,” will shore up Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces there as fighting over control of the city intensifies.

Rebels breached the Syrian government siege on opposition neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo Saturday, opening a corridor in the south and marking a major military breakthrough. The push prompted an intensive airstrike campaign Sunday as insurgent groups put up a massive defense to protect the new corridor and gain new ground.

The battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial heart, is pivotal for the Syrian civil war. It is not clear whether the rebels would be able to keep their new gains, but the breach causes a dent in the Syrian government’s new confidence and territorial expansion, bolstered by Russian air support. The city has been divided into rebel and government-held parts since 2012.

The semi-official Iranian Fars News Agency said the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah had deployed fighters from its Radwan division to a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo. The Beirut-based group does not comment on its military operations.

Reinforcements are also arriving from Iraq via Iran from the Iraq-based Hezbollah Brigades, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and al-Nujaba militias, militia officials told The Associated Press. The Hezbollah Brigades have deployed some 1,000 fighters on Sunday, an official said. The al-Nujaba militia announced on its Facebook page that it sent 2,000 fighters. None of the militias’ officials agreed to speak on record, saying they were not authorized to give press statements.

The battle for Aleppo has triggered one of the largest mobilizations of fighters in Syria’s civil war, with an estimated 5,000-8,000 fighters taking part on the rebel side.

Syria’s pro-government Al-Watan newspaper also said Monday that the Syrian army and its allies had brought “necessary” military reinforcements to recover areas it withdrew from after it carried out a “redeployment in the area.”

The leader of a Syrian opposition group, Anas al-Abdah, meanwhile, hailed the breaching of the Syrian government siege on opposition neighborhoods of Aleppo as “miraculous.”

“Because our fighters are not only facing the Syrian regime but they are also facing the militias, Hezbollah, Iranian militias and Russia,” he said at a news conference in Istanbul. “And the reason we managed to do that is simply because we, the revolutionary forces, decided to be united and act as united.”

Al-Abdah said after breaking the siege, the rebels were now moving on to a “new stage” that involves liberating the entire city, while a commander of the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham rebel faction, Hossam Abu Bakr, said the fighters were regrouping.

Syrian government officials meanwhile sought to reassure residents of Aleppo’s government-controlled western quarters that access has not been cut to the city and supplies are still arriving through an alternative route.

Aleppo governor Mohammad Olabi said at least 10 fuel tankers were able to reach the government side of the city. He says consumer items would continue to be delivered to meet the residents’ needs.

A military officer says that trucks with food also entered the city, divided between government and rebel control, earlier in the day. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.

Activists said residents in opposition-held eastern Aleppo have yet to see humanitarian aid reach their neighborhoods despite the rebel advance, which punctured a government blockade against the eastern quarters.

Osama al-Ezz, a physician working in the Aleppo countryside, said a nominal amount of relief has reached the formerly besieged quarters, but “not enough for empty stomachs.” He said fighter jets were targeting all vehicles that try to enter the area through the new route carved out by rebels last weekend.

A physician inside the city, Farida, who declined to give her last name out of concerns for her family’s safety, said prices for basic goods inside eastern Aleppo remain inflated due to the siege-like conditions.

The International Committee for the Red Cross told the AP that eastern Aleppo was still inaccessible to its trucks. It said no aid convoys to the opposition area were forthcoming. The relief agency helped thousands of residents displaced in last week’s fighting settle in the government side of the city, spokeswoman Ingy Sedky said.

Also Monday, six long-range Tu-22M3 bombers took off from Russian territory and carried out strikes on the Islamic State group in areas east and northwest of Palmyra, near Sukhna and Arak, according to a Russian Defense Ministry statement.

One strike near Sukhna destroyed a command post and large field camp. Strikes near Palmyra and Arak destroyed command posts, an underground cache of weapons and ammunition, three infantry fighting vehicles, 12 off-road vehicles with heavy machine guns and a “large amount of enemy manpower,” the statement said.

 

Associated Press

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25 responses to “Iran backed Iraqi, Lebanese Shiite militias deploy to Syria’s Aleppo”

  1. Rudy1947 Avatar

    More Afghans will have to be drafted for this battle.

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      Afghans are from Asia they’re in the horde of barbarians; ISIS, al Qaeda, sharia etc… don’t give their life for foreign countries but for promesse of 70 virgins.

      1. Rudy1947 Avatar

        So is Iran.

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          Iran-Persia, Iraq-Mesopotamia, have borders and Shia.

          1. Are the Shea virgins all run out? Why would anyone want 70 virgins?

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Did you run out of stupidities? I hate sectarianism, you &Co job here is to promote Sectarianism, as if Lebanon had not enough, you vampires wan’t Shebaa Farms, Golan Heights and Aleppo. Syria opposition will use you and betray you like Arabs do, Assad is Secular.
            Enough Blood and refugees, Israel takes and give nothing in return but rather destroys the people she robbed, West offers false Democracy helping false Islam.

          3. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Probably best to keep it that simple … supplying historical footnotes to the miss-educated and the uneducated, after so much ‘dumbing-down’, can’t make a dent in the problems of the whole of the failed ‘concepts’ any more … we can see that after trying for years to find ‘the way’ forward for humanity. Few think of it that way.
            The planet groans with the absurdities now, and simply finding food, even if ‘AID’ is allowed, and the evolution of the fast-thinking bugs, will become the deciding factor.
            I’m sure that’s part of Sweden’s decision to punt out a few thousand … a cost factor of having to import food for the instant swell of bodies someone thinks it can handle … and that while the Sun fries other areas at the same time. Short-sighted ‘planning’ not considering at all the realities of the time taken to turn iced rocks into arable land, in that ‘quest’ for oil that was formed over millions of years of changing and moving ‘tectonic plates’ floating on a molten sea – which isn’t going to be cooling off anytime soon. No-one considers more than their own lifetimes.

          4. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            US Department of lies, Mr Toner ..not “aware”, didn’t “check yet”..
            U.S. Continues To Arm And Support Terrorists That Beheaded Young Boy On Camera
            Brandon Turbeville
            http://www.activistpost.com/2016/08/u-s-continues-to-arm-and-support-terrorists-that-beheaded-young-boy-on-camera.html

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Xi7rrxk_0

        2. I think Hind has an illusion that Iran is not a sect based sharia law Islamic despot of a country. Compared to Saudi arabia, they both say their allah snackbars, they both have sharia law, they both have gender discrimination, they both have excessive executions and control proxy militias and many other finities of being an Islamic dictator country. True the people of Iran, may have for the majority, been turned off Islam, but just the same, are forced to live under it and the totalitarianism of state controlled everything including their media and paranoid internet access. Keep on dreaming Hind while enjoying the freedom that Canada has to offer and thank god you don’t have to live there cause you wouldn’t be allowed to access this site to entertain us.

          1. Rudy1947 Avatar

            Hind has a few problems like Afghanistan sharing a border with Iran and while the lure of a 6ual paradise is nice, a good paycheck is even better.

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            History is older than England 1000 yrs, and America 400 yrs.

          3. Rudy1947 Avatar

            I’m sure the potential Afghan draftees will be more interested in a paycheck than a history lesson.

          4. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Like you..
            New York Times cheering for AlQaeda suicide bombings in Aleppo, call it “rebel offensive”.

          5. Rudy1947 Avatar

            Does the article mention anything about Afghans being recruited by Iran?

          6. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Bull Shnit, what’s your problem? You want to nuke Iran go on and do it, under developed intellect. Why did they do the do the Coup to install Komeini to scare the Wahhabi who paid Saddam to invade I-ran and so on so forth, you think these were mere coincidence not planned?
            this i my last post to you till i read you she she she,,,

          7. man-o-war Avatar
            man-o-war

            They say “Allahu akbar”, it means God is greater or God is greatest. “Allah snackbar” is what ignorant Americans say when they want to make fun of Muslims. I’ve also used it to mock Islamic jihadis on this site. Muslim extremist have hijacked the term, but it is a very commonly used saying by everyday peace loving Muslim people.

          8. I am aware of the meaning, but I jest. So only muslims can criticize muslims? That will never fly. No religion is immune from being criticized and joked about. Only problem is muslim have this tendency to go boom when people don’t agree with them. Man’O, I would rather see Iran as a friend and allies but that is not possible under the current and mentally disturbed mullah dictatorship. I am aware that Iran also has it share of brainwashed Islamic radicals even if they are a smaller number sunnis. It is a crime what the mullah leaders do to their own people ,but only the Iranians can fix that when they get tired of living in a cage.

  2. Iran is throwing every proxy shiite it can muster at Syria.

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      When you refer to hordes of uneducated, sex-obsessed, terrorists as US backed moderate ‘opposition forces’ you’re contributing to the suffering of Syrians.

      1. Rudy1947 Avatar

        Will they be as artistic as Remy Couture?

  3. Hannibal Avatar

    The final solution… Wipe ISIS off this planet. 😀

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      ISIS executes own members through kitchen gas inhalation
      https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isis-executes-members-kitchen-gas-inhalation/

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar
        5thDrawer

        Disappointing that the ones who succeed in running away and surrendering are allowed to avoid a gas-chamber … although some might go to Turkey which had people willing to also cut heads off.

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          Saudi cleric, Abdullah al-Muhaysini, the prominent leader and top recruiter of the al-Qaeda Syrian branch, was filmed preaching his followers inside rebel-held districts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. Army of suicide bombers.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7F0XDY2bmk

  4. Can’t blame them after reading this…seems like they can trust no one else to watch their back.

    https://mobile.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/567259-hezbollah-fighter-in-leaked-tape-we-were-abandoned

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