Media in Iran: A 'Veteran' Fatemiyoun Force of the IRGC Killed in Syria

Media close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran report that a 'veteran' member of the Fatemiyoun militia, affiliated with the Quds Force of the IRGC, was killed in Syria on Saturday morning, February 12. The Fars news agency did not publish the reason for his death. This news comes as the United States launched attacks on positions used by Iranian-backed militants in Syria on the same day. The Tasnim website, also close to the IRGC, stated that he was killed in the Deir ez-Zor region in eastern Syria. The Associated Press previously reported that as U.S. retaliatory strikes continued in response to the killing of three American forces in Jordan, the United States attacked positions of Iranian-backed militants in eastern Syria on Saturday. The Fatemiyoun militia is one of the proxy groups of the Islamic Republic, consisting of Afghan citizens. Fars news agency identified this member of Fatemiyoun as 'Hamzeh Alavi,' stating that he was born in 1958 in Parwan province, Afghanistan, and defended the 'Islamic Revolution' during the eight-year war with Iraq. According to Fars news agency, 'the head of the IRGC's Imam Reza Foundation for the Martyrs' and representatives from the 'Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs' and 'command and elements of the Fatemiyoun Brigade' informed his family of his death, and a ceremony is to be held for him in Mashhad. This report comes at a time when officials of the Islamic Republic, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, have claimed that the Islamic Republic has no proxy groups. Human Rights Watch previously reported in 2016 that the Islamic Republic had sent thousands of Afghans to fight on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, promising them a salary of about one thousand dollars per month at that time. Critics of the clerical regime in Iran argue that the Islamic Republic spends financial resources on spreading its ideology and supporting proxy groups abroad instead of investing in the country's industrial and economic development, thereby holding the country back relative to its capabilities.