Iran Denies Deployment of Ground Forces to Syria

Contradicting Reports of Hundreds of Troops Being Deployed

A high-ranking Iranian official dismissed as “sheer lie” media reports that Iranian troops have been deployed to Syria, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported today.

Reuters, citing Lebanese sources, had reported that in the past two weeks hundreds of Iranian troops have moved into Syria to join a major ground offensive in support of Assad’s government. The report said the deployed troops were not advisers but a fighting force, and that they will be followed by more troops in the coming days. 

Note: The Iranian government usually denies deployment of any Iranian forces to Syria. It took them nearly two years to confirm that hundreds of Quds Force advisers were operating in the country. 

Photo: AP

 

Iranian Fotros UAV Missing Two Screws

Photo Source: IRNA

By: Jabbar Fazeli, MD

Iran unveiled its latest Wunderwaffe, the "FOTROS"  long range UAV this week (1). 

I'm sure I'm not the only noticing, but this high tech UAV seems to be missing two screws as shown in the above photos. I assume they are not there by design, or to house two tiny hidden cameras.

One would think that as they put this toy together,  they would have had a mechanism for quality control. Even though this media project was probably rushed ahead of this week's nuclear talks in Geneva, there is no excuse for this level of incompetence, and for making Iran the laughingstock of the world. 

As to the general effectiveness of Iranian UAVs, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. It is no secret that the IRGC is actively engaged in the Syrian civil war, yet the coverage of that war shows no evidence of active use of Iranian UAVs. 

Case in point, the IRGC commander Esmail Heydari was filmed by a documentary film crew walking into a rebel ambush in August of 2013 (2). I'm sure he would have appreciated having a UAV handy to scout ahead; a basic Iranian made UAV, with German spare parts, would have been sufficient to the job. Just like the Iranian made SAMs are no where to be found as the Israeli air force strikes Syrian targets at will.

References:

(1)http://www.uskowioniran.com/2013/11/fotros-ucav-irans-strategic-drone.html

(2)http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gvhU113mVpw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgvhU113mVpw