Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Several members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as well as elite forces of Iranian army have reportedly been killed in armed clashes in the outskirts of Syria's Aleppo.
An informed source has told Fars that the commandos of Iranian army have been deployed to Zaytan settlement in Aleppo to help Syrian forces in fight against armed opposition groups.
Meanwhile, the IRGC has a number of its forces in al-Hadher settlement to confront with armed opposition groups. Fars report added that recently over 8,000 of insurgents staged a massive attack on the pro-President Bashar al-Assad forces in the southern parts of Aleppo where a number of Iranian forces were killed. The report did not provide further information on the date of the operation and its death toll.
Iranian officials earlier announced that army's elite forces namely "the 65 Nohed Airborne Brigade" has deployed a group of its commandos in Syria to provide advisory support for President Bashar al-Assad's army in fight against terrorist groups.
Over the past few years and since the crisis broke out in Syria, several members of the elite forces of Iran have been reportedly killed in clashes with "terrorists", which suggested Iran's military presence the country.
However, Iranian officials have constantly denied that their servicemen have boots on ground in Syria, saying the military forces are in Syria as advisers at official request from Damascus. More than 250,000 people have been killed in the Syrian crisis with hundreds of thousands displaced since crisis sparked in the country.