12-05-2016, 00:31
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חבר מתאריך: 13.11.04
הודעות: 16,823
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IRGC, allies sustained significant losses in battle for Khan Touman
http://defensenews-alert.blogspot.c...ignificant.html
According to an unconfirmed report by Iranian outlet Jam News, 80 pro-government combatants were killed, including members of the Afghan Fatemiyoun Division, Lebanese Hezbollah, and the IRGC. Footage on social media shows a large number of Afghans and Iranians, and possibly some Hezbollah fighters, among the dead. An alleged text message exchange among trapped Afghans in Khan Touman has since gone viral, particularly for its ominous ending: “God willing we will be martyred, not captured.”
The Revolutionary Guard has thus far acknowledged the wounding of 21 and the loss of 17 military “advisers,” including the deaths of two senior officers: Brigadier General Second Class Javad Dourbin, a retired commander who went to Syria last month, and Brigadier General Shafi Shafii, a commander in the Guard’s external arm the Qods Force. Thirteen were regular ground forces from the 25th Karbala Division, stationed in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran. Bearing the brunt of the ambush, this unit has rotated back to Iran. One soldier was from the IRGC Hazrat-e Seyyed ol-Shohada Unit (Tehran province) and another from Karaj, Alborz province.
According to parliamentarian Mohammad Esmail Kowsari, a former senior Guard commander, five or six Iranians were captured in Khan Touman. According to a journalist with the IRGC-affiliated Fars News, Jaysh al Fath executed three Iranian prisoners and took five to an undisclosed location on May 10, raising the purported number of prisoners to eight.
Although Iran and its militias have been suffering increasing casualties, with official tallies between 400 and 700, the IRGC can sustain its involvement for a long period of time. According to an announcement made by a former Guard commander who was in Khan Touman as an “advisor” two weeks ago, 1,200 Iranian fighters have been killed in Syria since 2012, a higher figure than their official numbers. The figure may reflect unreported deaths or losses by the Qods Force, who are known to not publicize their fatalities. The commander claimed that many have registered as “volunteers” to deploy, but that they do not have permission yet. He also reiterated repeated warnings that if Iran loses in Syria, it would have to fight the same forces in its western province of Kurdistan.
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