This Is How Iran Recruits Afghans To Fight In Syria

Fatemiyoun unit fighters in Syria

DW: In Syria, Iran recruits Afghan teenagers to fight its war

Foreign fighters are being sucked into the Syrian conflict. And many who are sent to the frontline are barely out of their teens. DW's Naomi Conrad met one of them.

When the Revolutionary Guard offered Mahdi a choice — fight in Syria or be shipped to the border with Afghanistan, rife with Taliban fighters — it seemed a no-brainer: It was 2014 and Mahdi, a teenager who'd never finished school and had fled from Kabul to Iran hoping to find a better life, had never heard of Syria, let alone of the brutal war that had been raging there for over three years.

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WNU editor: The child soldiers are the easiest ones to recruit.

2,000 Afghans Killed And 8,000 Wounded In Syria Fighting For Bashar al-Assad

A member of Syrian pro-regime forces fires a machine gun towards rebel-held positions in Idlib province on November 11, 2017

Middle East Monitor: More than 2,000 Afghans killed in Syria fighting for Bashar al-Assad: Official

Iran, said to have deployed the Afghans, denies sending professional troops to Syria, only military advisers and volunteer brigades.

More than 2,000 Afghans deployed by Iran have been killed fighting in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, an official in the volunteer force told Iranian media.

The Fatemiyoun Brigade of Afghan "volunteer" recruits has been fighting in Syria for five years, said Zohair Mojahed, a cultural official in the brigade.

"This brigade has given more than 2,000 martyrs and 8,000 wounded for Islam," he said in an interview with the reformist Shargh newspaper published Saturday.

Iran rarely provides figures on the numbers fighting and killed in its operations in Syria and Iraq.

The last toll was provided by the veterans organisation in March, which said 2,100 volunteers had died without specifying how many were foreign recruits.

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Update: Over 2,000 Afghans sent by Iran killed in Syria: official (AFP)

WNU Editor: Here are some more details on who are the foreigners fighting Syrian President Assad's war .... Where Is Assad Getting His Fighters From? (It's Not Just Lebanon and Iraq) (National Interest).