Militias from Iraq and supported by Iran entered Syria this Monday (2).
The group headed towards the north of the country to support army forces fighting the rebels, two Syrian military sources said.
A senior Syrian army informant told Reuters that dozens of Iraqi fighters from the Iran-aligned Hashd al Shaabi entered Syria via a military route near the Al Bukamal crossing, a city in the east of the country.
“These are new reinforcements sent to help our comrades on the front lines in the north,” the official said, adding that the militias also included the Iraqi groups Katiab Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun.
During the Syrian war, Iran sent thousands of Shiite militias into the territory and, together with Russia and its air power, allowed President Bashar Assad to eradicate the opposition, regaining most of the area.
The lack of soldiers to prevent the rebel attack in recent days contributed to the rapid withdrawal of Syrian army forces and the takeover of the city of Aleppo by opponents, two other military sources said.
Iranian-allied militias, led by Hezbollah, have a strong presence in the Aleppo region, the country’s second largest city.
In recent months, Israel has also intensified attacks on Iranian bases in Syria and, at the same time, waged an offensive in Lebanon that, according to the country, weakened Hezbollah and its military capabilities.
Understand the conflict in Syria
Syria’s civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad suppressed a pro-democracy uprising.
The country was plunged into full-scale conflict when a rebel force was formed, known as the Free Syrian Army, to fight government troops.
Furthermore, the Islamic State, a terrorist group, also managed to gain a foothold in the country and came to control 70% of Syrian territory.
Fighting escalated as other regional actors and world powers — from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States to Russia — joined in, escalating the country’s war into what some observers described as a “proxy war.”
Russia has allied with Bashar al-Assad’s government to combat the Islamic State and rebels, while the United States has led an international coalition to repel the terrorist group.
After a ceasefire agreement in 2020, the conflict remained largely “dormant”, with minor clashes between the rebels and the Assad regime.
More than 300,000 civilians have been killed in more than a decade of war, according to the UN, and millions of people have been displaced across the region.
This content was originally published in Pro-Iran militias arrive in Syria to support Bashar al-Assad in new conflict on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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