A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran’s redline is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s remaining in power until his term in office is over.
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The report said “several of the Guard’s members were killed after violation of cease-fire by Takfiri groups and their attack on Khan Touman”.
Al-Nusra Front and allied Islamists seized Khan Tuman and surrounding villages after less than 24 hours of clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Last November, President al-Assad met with Velayati and asserted Syria’s and its friends’ determination to go ahead in counterterrorism as eradicating it will constitute the basic step for brining stability to the region and the world and a prelude for the success of any political solution determined by the Syrians.
Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates posted videos and photos on social media of what appeared to be the bodies of Iranians or Shi’ite militiamen who were killed in Khan Touman.
Iran is Syria’s main regional ally, sending financial and military aid, including military advisers and volunteer forces from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, to prop up President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Spokesperson Hossein Ali Rezayi said that they all hailed from the northern province of Mazandaran.
There are indications that some of the casualties might be Afghans who are trained in Iran and are deployed alongside Iranian soldiers in Syria.
Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and once an economic hub, has been carved out between the government in the western part of the city and the rebels in the east.
Earlier this week, the United States and Russian Federation brokered a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo itself.
Also on Saturday, Russia said that a fragile truce in the northern city of Aleppo had been extended for 72 hours, as ISIL battled other militant factions near the city.
The strikes were in response to increasingly frequent Islamic State attacks against opposition forces in the area, Turkisk security sources told Andadolu.
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The town was captured by a coalition known as Jaish al-Fatah, or Army of Conquest, an ultraconservative group led by the Nusra Front, and the jihadi militias Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham.
