Iranians Blame US-Backed Camisado over Martyrdoms Near Aleppo

While a truce in the Syrian city of Aleppo had been extended until Monday, thirteen Iranian military advisors were killed in a battle with Islamist militants over Khan Touman, a village near the city, Reuters reported on Saturday.

Islamist forces seized Khan Touman village, about 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Aleppo, on Friday and dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the fighting. The attack was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, according to Reuters. The region located about 15 km southwest of Aleppo is quite important because of its vicinity to the Aleppo-Damascus highway.

Fars News Agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded. In a statement on Saturday, the IRGC said the forces were all from Iran's northern province of Mazandaran, PressTV reported. The British-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had confirmed from its sources on the ground the death of 20 Iranians, including 13 advisors. The monitor said that among the Iranian-backed militia fighters involved in the battles, six from Lebanon's Hezbollah Shi'ite movement and 15 Afghan Shi'ite fighters were also killed. The IRGC statement said the identity of the victims would be released later.

Iran has officially slammed Takfiri terrorists’ occupation of the strategic village, stressing that the Syrian crisis can be resolved only through political means. Terrorists and armed groups, erroneously called moderate opposition, have joined hands in capitalizing on the ceasefire in Syria, said Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on Saturday, adding that such moves clearly showed the fact that foreign-backed groups seek to perpetuate military operations and did not believe in a political solution, whatsoever.

“We believe that the solution to the Syrian crisis is only political and the terrorists and their groups should be denounced and crushed by the international community,” he was quoted as saying by PressTV.

The news of the massacre has been featured on front pages of Iranian newspapers, with some articles going no further than the story itself, some penning sentimental elegies but more importantly those offering analyses that accuse the US as the main traitor behind the savage terrorist retake. In article written by Mohammad Babaei, Javan raps US support for terrorist groups and underlines Tweets by London-based journalist Hala Jaber in which she accused the US for inaction if not hypocrisy. “The USA is not illiterate or uninformed about the make-up of Jaish al-Fatah,” Javan quoted her as saying. “Insisting on a ceasefire in Aleppo, yet allows Al-Qaeda and allies to break it without any comments, reaction or effort to hit Al-Qaeda and Co in Syria,” the translated quote goes on.

Kayhan has its own account of the battle. Calling the raid a dirty trick by Yankees, Kayhan wrote: “About three thousand Takfiris of the Nusra Front, dressed like the so-called moderate opposition group “Jaish al-Fatah”, supported by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and armed with advanced American weapons and missiles such as TOW, invaded the Khan Touman village and abused the good will of the Syrian army and the resistance front to occupy the town”. However, the occupation will not last long, Kayhan predicts, as the “strategic mistake will trap them in a whirlpool of heavy attacks by the Syrian army and the resistance front”.

Drawing on the United States’ support for the Jaish al-Fatah and Nusra Front, the daily called the occupation a joint US-Takfiri operation, the signals of which had been sent by John Kerry and other White House officials when they said the ceasefire had ended and threatened that war will return if Assad does not step down. The daily stresses that the US should respond on why “white-listed” groups such as Jaish al-Fatah and Ahrar ash-Sham have broken the ceasefire.

Despite initial criticisms in Iran, sparked at times because military commanders went too far in expressing support for the Syrian government and at times based on allegations regarding the financial costs, now the tides are turning favorably for the “holy shrine defenders”, Iranian military advisors, working to help the Syrian government to maintain the country’s sovereignty. Public sentiments are now more and more sympathetic for those martyred in Syria and those still bravely fighting. Celebrities most recently including Elham Hamidi, Pouria Poursorkh and Behnoush Bakhtiari have also taken to Instagram and other social networks to express sympathy and invoke support, though they usually include cautious notes saying this is how they “really” feel and they are not looking for deals.