Iranian Militias Redeploy in East Syria

Iranian Militias Redeploy in East Syria

Iranian forces and their proxy militias redeployed in the past few hours in areas attacked last Wednesday by a series of airstrikes in eastern Syria.

Allegedly launched by Israel, the missiles killed at least 57 people, most of them fighters from Iranian-backed militias, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Syrian state news agency Sana said Israeli aircraft attacked the eastern Deir Ezzor and Bukamal regions, while Iranian media outlets denied that any Iranian deaths had resulted from the string of airstrikes.

Quoting reliable sources, the Observatory said that on Thursday, Iranian forces and their proxies have redeployed troops in Deir Ezzor, Al-Mayadeen, and Bukamal, after they had evacuated several positions on the outskirts of these cities.
It added that a group of the Iranian-backed militias deployed in residential neighborhoods for fear of future airstrikes, while others deployed in their affiliated posts.

“Fifty seven people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on positions, weapons warehouses, ammunition and missiles depots affiliated to regime forces, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iranian forces and their proxy militias, mainly the Fatemiyoun Brigade, in the area between Deir Ezzor city and the Syria-Iraq border in Bukamal desert,” the London-based watchdog wrote.

It said the death toll was the largest documented in the area since Israel started its attacks on Syria, and the most intensive on Deir Ezzor.

The Observatory revealed that in Deir Ezzor, 26 persons were killed in 10 strikes by Israeli fighter jets on Ayyash warehouses, Saka camp, the 137th Brigade, the mountain overlooking the city, and other positions on its outskirts.

In Bukamal, 16 Iranian-backed Iraqi militiamen were killed in six Israeli airstrikes on positions, weapons warehouses, and ammunition depots in the area of Al-Hezam, Al-Jamiyat neighborhood, and other positions in the Bukamal desert.

In Al-Mayadeen, 15 Iranian-backed non-Syrian militiamen, including 11 Afghan members of “Fatemiyoun Brigade” were killed in the Israeli strikes on positions and weapons warehouses in Al-Mazari’ area in Al-Mayadeen desert in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.

However, these numbers seemed very different from the death toll presented by Iranian news outlets.

Deputy commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) the attacks left no Iranian deaths.

“The attacks left no human casualties,” Ahmad Karimkhani told Iran’s state Fars News Agency on Thursday. “Despite their fake propaganda, the Zionists do not dare to attack the Iranian and resistance groups’ centers and positions in Syria,” he added.

Meanwhile, the commander of the Fatemiyoun Corps, an all-Afghan unit involved in Syria’s war, denied reports of an Israeli attack on the corps’ positions and forces in eastern Syria.

Speaking to Tasnim on Thursday, the commander quashed rumors that a recent Israeli attack in eastern Syria has inflicted casualties on the Fatemiyoun forces.
“In their latest strike, the Zionist regime’s fighter jets targeted the Syrian army positions on the road between Deir Ezzor and Bukamal. A number of the Syrian army officers were martyred in these attacks,” the commander said.

In Damascus, the Syrian Foreign Ministry asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council to take strict and quick measures to prevent Israel from re-launching attacks on Syria.