Syria: ISIL Cut Off Crucial Supply Line to Aleppo

The Islamic State militants have cut off a crucial supply line for Iran-led pro-government forces to the city of Aleppo late last week. The supply line through Safira, Khanaser and Anthriya was the only way to access regime-held neighborhoods in western Aleppo. The highway, however, remains highly contested, as it's the lifeline for the pro-regime forces. Sections of the main Damascus-Aleppo highway have been cut off for more than three years. (The Wall Street Journal, 27 October)

IRGC-led pro-government forces, under the command of Gen. Soleimani, and supported by Russian air force, launched offensives earlier this month against the opposition forces south of Aleppo and ISIL to the east of Syria’s largest city. The battles have been so fierce that so far the IRGC alone has lost more than 30 officers and servicemen, including three general officers.

In the past few days, the fighting between pro-government forces and ISIL has been under way around the town of Safira, 16 miles southeast of Aleppo, and farther south in Anthriya and Khanaser. Some opposition reports indicate that ISILis close to enter Safira proper. On Monday, ISIL captured a regime checkpoint on the stretch of the road between Anthriya and Khanaser.

It would be a major blow to pro-government forces if ISIL succeeds in holding on to its advances along the supply line and disrupts it or much longer. (The Wall Street Journal, 27 October)

Photo credit: Syria’s pro-government forces on the eastern outskirts of Aleppo; 24 October 2015 (George Ourfalian/APF/Getty Images/WSJ)

IRGC General and Airborne LT Killed in Aleppo

IRGC Brig. Gen. Majid Sanei and 2^nd LT Moslem Nasr were killed in Aleppo in the past 24 hours. Sanei is the third IRGC general officer killed in action during the Aleppo offensives. LT Nasr was deployed with IRGC’s elite 33^rd al-Mahdi Airborne Brigade, which already had another KIA in Aleppo operation last week.

Top photo: IRGC Brig. Gen. Majid Sanei, killed in action in Aleppo on 27 October

Bottom photo: IRGC 2^nd LT Moslem Nasr, killed in action in Aleppo on 27 October

Aleppo Offensives: IRGC Servicemen Killed in Action

Quds Force-led Offensives

Iranian media reported another 3 IRGC servicemen were killed in Syria: Rauf Amjadi, Haidar Nouri Rostami and Jabbar Araghi. No military ranks were given. Social media looking at the Iranian KIA in Syria put the number of known KIAs since the 7 October offensive at 30. (@dudi_cohen) 

Almost all IRGC servicemen killed in the past 2.5 weeks were deployed near Aleppo, where the IRGC-Quds Force is leading a coalition of the Lebanese Hezbollah and Afghan, Pakistani and other foreign Shia militia forces and government troops to isolate and retake parts of the city under the opposition control. The pro-regime forces, under the command of Gen. Soleimani, supported by Russian air power, have launched offensives in the south of the city against the opposition forces, and to the east against ISIL. There are no indications, however, if they could isolate Aleppo anytime soon.

Top photo: IRGC’s Rauf Amjadi killed in action in Syria
Bottom photo: Funeral procession for IRGC’s Haidar Nouri Rostami
Photo credit: Twitter

Two IRGC Servicemen Killed Near Aleppo

Fars News Agency reported today that two IRGC servicemen were killed today south of the Syrian city of Aleppo. The news agency gave the names of the soldiers killed in action as Mostafa Sadrzadeh (pictured below with Gen. Soleimani) and Milad Mostafavi. Fars did not give their ranks.

Yesterday, an IRGC spokesman had confirmed the death of eight servicemen also near Aleppo, but social media reports had put the number of KIA at 15. With two more KIA reported today, the total number of Iranian casualties in Syria in the past 48 hours has now risen to at least 10, and as many as 17, the most in more than four years of conflict.

In the past, a number of senior officers, including general officers of the Quds Force, who were deployed to Syria as advisers, were killed in action. This month the IRGC Ground Force reportedly deployed some 2,000 troops to Syria, with younger and lower-ranked servicemen being killed in action.

An image of Mostafa Sadrzadeh and Gen. Soleimani taken in Syria. The date and exact location unknown. (Mashreghnews)

IRGC Servicemen Killed in Syria

IRGC announced today that eight Iranian servicemen were killed in the past 24 hours in Syria. Fars News Agency quoted Ramezan Sharif, a spokesman for the IRGC, as saying that IRGC members Abdollah Bagheri and Amin Karimi and six other unnamed servicemen were killed in Syria yesterday and today, without giving their ranks. Reports in social media had indicated that actually 15 IRGC serviceman were killed near Aleppo, but IRGC spokesman denied those reports, saying only eight were killed.

Abdollah Bagheri, 33, one of the IRGC servicemen killed in action, was identified as the former bodyguard of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The photos in social media show Ahmadinejad at the late Bagheri’s house saying condolences to his family.

Iran was reported to have deployed some 2,000 IRGC Ground Force troops to Syria after the start of the Russian involvement in the country’s civil war on 30 September. They have joined hundreds of Quds Force advisers and specialists already in Syria. The introduction of ground troops into the conflict has changed Iran’s strategy of maintaining a small footprint of advisers to a limited deployment of ground forces directly involved in the conflict.

15 servicemen killed in action, or eight as IRGC says, is the largest number of Iranian casualties in a 24-hour period in more than 4 years of conflict in Syria.

Photo credit: Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with the family of Abdollah Bagheri, his former bodyguard killed in action in Syria; Tehran, 23 October 2015

IRGC General, Former Saberin Commander, Killed in Syria

Brig. Gen. Farshad Hosouni-Zadeh, former commander of Saberin, IRGC’s elite special forces brigade, was killed in Syria, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported today. No further details were given.

On Monday, Colonel Hamid Mokhtarband, aka Abu Zahra, former commander of IRGC’s Hazrat Hojat brigade in Ahvaz, was also killed in Syria, Tasnim news agency reported today.

Last Thursday, the most senior IRGC officer in Syria, Gen. Hossein Hamedani, was killed near Aleppo. He was buried on Monday in his hometown of Hamedan.

Top photo: General Farshad Hosouni-Zadeh (r.) in an unidentified location in Syria (FNA)

Bottom photo: General Hamid Mokhtarband, second from left (Tasnim)