Iranian media reports indicate that the fifth commando of the Islamic Republic of Iran's army has been killed in clashes in Syria on behalf of the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
On Wednesday, April 15, the Fars News Agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, announced the name of the commando as "Hamdollah Bakhshandeh," and according to the media outlet, "he was a fighter in the Islamic Republic Army who traveled to Syria to defend the shrine of Hazrat Zainab and was martyred while fighting Takfiri terrorists."
The news of the killing of the fifth Iranian army commando comes on the same day that the commander of the army's ground forces confirmed the killing of four other commandos this week.
The Tasnim news agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, announced the names and military ranks of the dead as "Colonel Mojtaba Zolfaqarensb", "Captain Morteza Zerharand", "Second Lieutenant Mojtaba Yadollahi Monfared", and "Mohsen Qutasloo".
The news of the deployment of army commandos to the Syrian civil war, which is ongoing between the forces of the government of President Bashar al-Assad and its armed opponents, especially ISIS and the Nusra Front, was first announced on April 6 of this year by Ali Arasteh, deputy coordinator of the ground forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran's army.
He had said that army rangers would be sent to Syria as "advisors."
Most of these commandos are from the 65th Nohed Brigade (the army's special airborne force, known as the Green Berets).
Some conservative websites have analyzed the reasons for the deployment of the Iranian Army's Green Helmets to the Syrian front in their notes, including the "Hamandishi" website, which claims that "simultaneously with the advisory presence of a number of trained IRGC forces in Syria, a general demand was formed within the Islamic Republic's army for a presence in Syria, which regularly demanded that the army commanders be present on the fronts of truth against falsehood and defend the sanctity of the Bani Hashemite faith."
The site introduced the Rangers as "a highly trained military group of the Iranian Army" and wrote that the "Noahed Brigade" is capable of carrying out missions including "guerrilla warfare, partisan warfare, parachuting and freefalling on land, air and water, and in desert and mountainous areas."
The "Hamandishi" website quoted an army commander as saying that "the forces of this brigade... undergo courses such as hostage rescue, parachuting instructor, sniper training, special operations, diving, and almost all the courses that a guerrilla needs to be trained in."
Over the past year, since the Islamic Republic has adopted a policy of announcing the number of military personnel killed in the Syrian war, Iranian news agencies have regularly published reports on the number of military personnel killed in the war.
In addition to forces from the Revolutionary Guards, Basij, and the Islamic Republic Army who are present in the Syrian conflict, Pakistani forces in the form of the "Zainbiyoun" brigade and Afghan forces in the form of the "Fatemiyoun" brigade are also fighting in this war alongside Bashar al-Assad's forces and Lebanese Hezbollah.
