The commander-in-chief of the Iranian Armed Forces, Ataollah Salehi, claimed on Wednesday that regular Iranian forces in Syria are mere volunteers working under the supervision of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps. "Some volunteers have been sent to Syria, under the supervision of the related organization, and among them there might be some of the Brigade 65 forces," Iran's Tasnim news agency quoted Salehi saying. "The army has no responsibility in military advice given in Syria," he went on to add. Brigade 65 is an elite commando brigade of Iran's regular army (Artesh). Before its recent deployment Iranian forces in Syria had mostly been part of the extraterritorial branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the so-called Quds Brigade. Iran has long claimed that IRGC forces in Syria were merely playing an advisory role, scores have nevertheless been killed, including commanders, in recent months. Tehran has closely supported its ally in Damascus, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, against the various militant and rebel groups arrayed against it.
Kurdistan25-06-2026Erbil says Baghdad deducted, withheld around $37 billion in its budget share in 7 years
