Seven Afghan Militants Killed in Syria Buried in Mashhad

Reports from Iran indicate that the bodies of seven Afghan forces killed in the Syrian civil war were buried in Mashhad on Thursday, March 5. According to the state news agency IRNA, the body of one member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was killed in Samarra, Iraq, was also buried on the same day in Langroud, Gilan province. Meanwhile, reports from IRNA and the 'Abna' news agency indicate that at least 12 Iranian and Afghan forces killed in the Syrian war were buried in Iran in March. IRNA reported on Thursday that the bodies of seven individuals, referred to by the agency as 'martyrs defending the shrine of Hazrat Zainab,' were buried in Mashhad. The names of these individuals were listed as Alireza Tosuli, Reza Bakhshi, Nematollah Najafi, Javid Yousefi, Hossein Hosseini, Mahmoud Hakimi, and Qasem Sadat. IRNA did not mention the nationality of these individuals, but according to 'Abna,' they were Afghan nationals. The news agency identified Alireza Tosuli, known as Abu Hamid, as the commander of the 'Fatimiyoun' brigade and Reza Bakhshi, known as Fateh, as the deputy commander of this brigade. Mr. Tosuli's wife stated that he had gone to Syria two years ago to 'defend the shrine of Hazrat Zainab.' The deaths of these Afghan forces in Syria come amid reports from the Wall Street Journal that Iran is 'hiring' thousands of Afghan refugees to fight in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad's government by 'paying $500 a month and granting residency permits in Iran.' CNN also reported last November, based on a video obtained from a group of Syrian rebels and sending a reporter to Afghanistan, that a group of 'Afghan fighters in Syria' were 'trained in Iran and receive a stipend from there.' IRNA also reported on March 2 that the bodies of two individuals named Abdullah Hosseini and Noorollah Hosseini, referred to as 'martyrs defending the shrine of Hazrat Zainab,' were buried in Mashhad. According to the news agency, on March 7, the bodies of two Iranian forces killed in Syria, named Hassan Jafari and Mohammad Hosseini, were buried in Isfahan. On March 9, IRNA reported that the body of Naim Rezaei, an Iranian force killed in Syria, was buried in Eshtehard, a city near Karaj. Numerous reports of Iranian forces' deaths in Syria have been published previously. In the latest case, Tasnim news agency reported the killing of Abbas Abdollahi, a senior member of the IRGC, along with his 'friend and companion' Ali Soltan Moradi on February 12 in Syria. Earlier, IRNA reported that Jabar Darisavi, one of the IRGC commanders, was killed in Syria at the end of October. IRGC commanders state that they have sent 'military advisors' to these countries to assist the Syrian government against armed groups opposing Bashar al-Assad and to help the Iraqi government in battles against Islamist militants of the 'Islamic State.' According to IRNA, on Thursday, the body of one IRGC member named Farhad Khosheh was buried in Langroud, Gilan province. The news agency stated that he was killed on the evening of Sunday, March 1, in Samarra, Iraq. In recent months, several Iranian forces have been killed in Samarra, Iraq. In the latest case, Tasnim and Fars news agencies, affiliated with the IRGC, reported on January 17 the killing of a young Iranian 'seminarian' named Mohammad Hadi Zolghadari in Samarra. Iranian media reported on February 6 that Seyyed Reza Hosseini-Moghadam, deputy of operational intelligence for the 5th Nasr Division, was killed in the fight against Islamic State forces near Samarra. Previously, on January 11, news of the killing of an Iranian commander present in Iraq named 'Mahdi Norouzi' from the 'Command Council of the Shahid Teymouri-Nia Basij Base in Kermanshah' was published in Samarra. On December 27, Hamid Taghavi, a senior commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC, was killed by a 'sniper' from the ISIS group in Samarra. Samarra, located 110 kilometers north of Baghdad, is predominantly Sunni and an important pilgrimage site for Shiites, housing the shrines of the tenth and eleventh Imams of Shiism.