Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 27
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The number of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) casualties in Syria reached 20 in the last week, semi-official Defapress news agency reported Oct. 27.
Jabbar Araghi, Hamid Reza Dayi Taghi and Pouya Izadi who were the members of the IRGC were killed in fighting with "terrorist" in Syria on Oct. 26.
Araghi was introduced as IRGC "Sardar", which is equal to General in international military ranking.
Pouya Izadi was an IRGC lieutenant while no information was published about Dayi Taghi's military rank.
The IRGC members, who were killed in Syria in the last week, mainly have lost their lives in clashes near Aleppo, according to the Iranian media.
Explaining the Islamic Republic's intensified casualties in Syria in recent days, Hossein Salami, deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said Oct. 26 that Iran has increased its presence in Syria in terms of "quantity and quality."
IRGC Spokesman General Ramezan Sharif said Oct. 23 that the IRGC has boosted the number of its advisors in Syria in recent days following government troops' striking victories in multiple fronts across the nation.
Tehran has always expressed support for the government of the Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Islamic Republic views the Syrian regime as its main strategic ally in the region and as part of an "axis of resistance" against Israel.
The Western countries accuse Iran of running military operations in Syria, but Tehran denies the accusations. Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed that they only render the military consultations to the Syrian forces.
The Western media recently reported that Iran had already sent hundreds of troops to northern and central Syria, after reports that up to 2,000 are to be deployed.
Edited by CN
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