In a statement published by the Iran-backed, Hezbollah militia-affiliated al-Mayadeen outlet on Saturday, a group called the Iranian Advisory Center believed to be affiliated with the IRGC’s Quds Force, said Iran-backed militia groups have come under attack while assisting in the defense of areas held by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
Iranian and Iran-backed groups “have not attacked Turkish troops in the area since their arrival in Idlib,” the statement reads. “Avoidance of Turkish troops in the area is still on.”
But in response to “a large-scale attack on Syrian regime army targets” on February 25 by Turkey-backed militia proxies, “Iranian militias supported the Syrian regime units to defend,” the statement added.
The Turkish-backed Turkestani Islamic Party in Syria and Jabhat al-Nusra jihadist groups conducted their attacks with airstrike support from Ankara, according to the statement.
The body claims to have since sent a group of mediators to urge Turkish troops to “halt their aggression and attacks” and negotiate a peaceful solution, but to no avail.
Iran has militarily supported the Syrian regime in its nine-year war against opposition groups, as well as the Islamic State (ISIS). It also supports various foreign proxy groups and also funds Hezbollah, a Shiite militia that has staunchly supported Assad in Syria.
With Russian air force backing, Syrian regime forces and its allied groups in December launched an extensive offensive against rebels in the northwestern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo in December, recapturing more than a hundred towns and villages it lost since the early years of Syrian civil war in 2011. Almost a million civilians have been displaced, according to the UN.
At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria’s Idlib province on Friday after an airstrike blamed on Damascus, prompting condemnation from Washington and a UN warning on the rapidly-rising risk of escalation.
Since Thursday, at least 74 soldiers of the Syrian regime army and militants supporting the regime killed by the Turkish airstrikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Saturday.
The UK-based monitor also reported that on Saturday alone, 26 Syrian regime soldiers and militants supporting the regime died in Turkish airstrikes in the area. Casualties included 10 militants from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, and 4 from other Iran-backed militias, including an officer from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). An Iranian cleric was also killed during a Turkish attack on Syrian army targets in Idlib on Friday.
“Their [Turkish people’s] sons are targets to our fighters on the ground,” the statement warned, calling on the Turkish public to push its government to think “wisely” and end its presence in Turkey.
US officials have repeatedly stressed the importance of proxy groups in Iran’s foreign and defense policies, as reiterated by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday.
We have an enormous Iranian problem inside of Syria, these attacks that are Syrian regime led, Iranian supported, Hezbollah supported, and underwritten by Iran along with the Russians are causing a humanitarian calamity in Syria," Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
US progress on ceasefire negotiation for northwest Syria has been limited, Pompeo added, warning of a high casualty toll in "this hellish place of Idlib."
