At least three Hizbollah fighters have died in recent days in northwest Syria supporting a recent Telegraph report that Iranian and Shia troops were directing military operations in Idlib.
Hizbollah, the Iran-backed militia based in Lebanon, announced the “martyrdom” of three different Lebanese men while carrying out their “religious duties.”
It has been reported that two of the fighters were killed and the third suffered a heart attack during an ambush carried out by Jabhat al-Nusra. Hizbollah is just one of the many Iranian-backed proxies fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, as he continues his bid to regain control in the country’s northwest.
Idlib, a province of 3.5 million people living under the control of jihadist groups, is being attacked daily by Syrian and Russian air and ground strikes. The latest was on Sunday as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported nine civilian deaths in the northwest as a result of “Syrian and Russian airstrikes.” The Telegraph revealed on Jan. 26 that Qassem Solemaini, the assassinated leader of the Quds Force, had sent militias to fight in Idlib before he was killed last month.
On Jan. 24, Hizbollah said a field commander was killed in Aleppo and his funeral took place in south Lebanon. The Quds Force, Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence force and extraterritorial military, and their Fatemiyon Brigades, were brought in to prop up the Syrian army as it entered what some say is the last major bastion of rebels.
The recordings leaked to The Telegraph revealed how Iranian soldiers and Afghan mercenaries were directing military operations in Idlib, despite a previous commitment at peace talks not to do so.
The latest Hizbollah announcements present further proof that Iran is directly taking part in the military operations via militias and proxies.
Lebanon-based The Daily Star newspaper reported on Saturday cited a Hizbollah source in Beirut as saying that three fighters. Two fighters were killed and the third allegedly suffered a heart attack, but in the same ambush that killed the other two, according to the source.
Source » telegraph