2024-02-20 15:53:21
“Fatemiyoun”… Iran’s “defeated” arm in Syria
A report published in the New York Times on Monday sheds light on the Fatemiyoun Brigade in Syria, which was formed from Afghan refugees who joined the fighting in Syria with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, to defend what it promoted with the slogan “holy Shiite shrines,” and to escape. From extreme poverty and fear of being returned to Afghanistan, to be a force in proxy wars for Tehran, they feel aggrieved because they are largely ignored in Iran.
At a memorial service for those killed in the US strike on military bases in Syria, according to Iranian state television, in the main cemetery in the Iranian capital, Tehran, a small crowd sat at the beginning of this month on rows of folding chairs, men in the front and women in the back. Children were walking around, a young man was passing around a box of candy, while a man was reciting prayers over a loudspeaker.
The 12 dead were not Iranians but Afghans, according to other soldiers and local medical reports. They were part of the Fatemiyoun Brigade, a largely ignored force whose emergence dates back to the height of the Syrian war more than a decade ago. At that time, Iran had begun recruiting thousands of Afghan refugees to help the Syrian president confront those rising up against him and fight ISIS terrorists. The compensation was $500 a month for the fighter, with his children registered in schools, and granted Iranian residency.
There is a belief that the brigade is still 20,000 strong, and is based on Afghan refugees, the majority of whom live in Iran and work under the command of the Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Iranian media outlets affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard and Fatemiyoun websites published the names and photos of the killed Afghans, and stated that they were killed in American attacks in Iraq and Syria.
It is noteworthy that the American attacks were carried out in response to a drone attack last January on a military base in Jordan, which resulted in the killing of three American soldiers.
After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, many Afghans set out on an arduous journey on foot through the mountains to Iran (AFP)
On the other hand, Iranian officials publicly denied the presence of any military personnel with ties to Iran among the victims. The Revolutionary Guard also did not issue any statement acknowledging the killing of the Afghans working under its command, as they usually do when members of the Iranian forces are killed, nor did any official threaten to retaliate for their killing.
However, accounts of Afghan deaths emerged in at least 4 cities; They are Tehran, Shiraz, Qom, and Mashhad, where their bodies were quietly handed over to their families, according to pictures and video clips published in Iranian media. Their coffins were covered during the funeral ceremony with a green cloth that did not bear the flag of any country. They were transported to religious shrines in Mashhad, Qom and Shiraz.
Archives of the Fatemiyoun Brigade (Iran Your Persian website)
Some mourners carried the yellow flag of the Fatemiyoun Brigade, which bears its logo. Local officials, clerics, representatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and members of Afghan refugees also attended some of the funerals, according to photographs and video clips. Two little girls, wearing pink jackets, were sobbing in front of their father’s coffin at another funeral on the outskirts of Tehran.
“There is a growing concern among Afghans that they are being killed without Iran protecting them, and even disavowing them to protect its interests,” says Hussein Ehsani, an expert on militants and terrorist movements in the Middle East, an Afghan who grew up in Iran as a refugee. “They feel like they are being used as cannon fodder,” he added.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a question about whether Amir Saeed Irani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, knew about the dead and wounded from the Fatemiyoun Brigade when he spoke before the Security Council (recently).
Afghans, including fighters from the Quds Force, expressed their anger and frustration at the way Iran dealt with the killing of those members, and posted almost daily messages on social media sites related to the Fatemiyoun. Some of them also wondered why the Quds Force was silent, describing it as “discrimination.”
Among those killed in the American bombing were two high-ranking commanders who were close allies of Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, according to Iranian media reports, and pictures appeared of the three together on the Syrian battlefield. Their names were mentioned as Sayed Ali Hosseini and Sayed Hamza Alavi.
It is noteworthy that most of the Afghans who fled to Iran over the years were Hazaras, which is one of the largest ethnic groups in Afghanistan, and they also belong to the Shiite sect, like most Iranians.
The Hazaras in Afghanistan were natural allies of the American forces, because they had a common enemy, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. However, in light of the complex situation in the Middle East today, they have allied themselves with Iran and are seeking to expel American forces from the region.
The central square in Palmyra, Syria, is one of many cities that the Fatemiyoun Brigade helped reclaim from ISIS (The New York Times)
Pursuing ISIS
In Syria, the Fatemiyoun Brigade was often the first line of defense in the battle against ISIS, and helped extensively in reclaiming many Syrian areas that the organization had seized.
The government newspaper Iran said last week that at least 3,000 members of the brigade were killed in Syria over the past years, but the United States classified it as a “terrorist organization” in 2019.
A former member of the Fatemiyoun Brigade, an Afghan who was born and raised in Iran and was sent to fight in Syria three times, said he was drawn to the group because it offered him an opportunity to escape extreme poverty and unemployment in Iran, as well as to gain legal status.
The group member, who requested that his name not be published for fear of retaliation, added that many fighters also joined “out of a desire to protect Shiite Islam and defeat Sunni extremism.”
Afghan Hazaras celebrate Ashura in Kabul in 2022 (New York Times)
Another Afghan refugee, Muhammad, a 31-year-old Hazara Shiite and former military officer in Afghanistan who fled to Iran when the Taliban regained control of the country, said in a phone interview that although he has a master’s degree, he works in… The construction industry, adding that Afghans should also be concerned about increasing crackdowns on illegal immigrants and threats of deportation.
Muhammad, who requested that his last name not be used for fear of retaliation, continued: “One of my Afghan friends told me that he wanted to join the Fatemiyoun Brigade because of his financial crisis and the fear of being sent back to Afghanistan. We are stuck here. We have no way to move forward or go back.”
Analysts say there is no evidence that Liwa Fatemiyoun forces are directly involved in attacks against US bases in Iraq and Syria, which the Pentagon says have been targeted more than 160 times by Iranian-backed proxies since the start of the war between Israel. And the Hamas movement last October, but the Fatemiyoun Brigade plays an important role in helping Tehran coordinate logistical matters on the ground between the network of militias that it supports, finances, and supplies with weapons throughout the region.
The Fatemiyoun Brigade forces oversee bases that constitute major stations along the weapons supply chain, including drones, missile parts and technology, that make their way from Iran to Iraq and then Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to analysts and a military strategist. A member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who requested anonymity.
Afghans being deported from Iran (New York Times)
“When the broader Syrian conflict stagnated several years ago, there was an expectation that the Fatemiyoun Brigade would return to its homeland, disband and demobilize its forces, but they kind of integrated,” said Charles Lister, director of the Syria and Counterterrorism and Extremism Programs at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “In the broader regional network, they found a new role to play, which is to stand out, coordinate logistics services, and coordinate on a broader scale on the ground.”
American fighter planes destroyed the base where members of the Fatemiyoun Brigade were killed in Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, leaving a pile of rubble and debris, according to a picture published on the “Sabreen News” website, affiliated with Iranian proxy militias.
US General Patrick Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, refused to comment specifically on the US strikes that resulted in the killing of Afghans working for Iran, but he said that the strikes were carried out to hold the Revolutionary Guard and its agents accountable, and that “initial indications indicate that more than 40 were killed or wounded.” Armed men linked to Tehran’s proxy groups.”
Iranian leaders and important figures have been evacuated from the bases in anticipation of the American strikes, as the administration of US President Joe Biden has been stressing for almost a week that the attacks are imminent, but an Iranian official linked to the Revolutionary Guard said that the Afghans remained at the base, adding that no Military bases can be abandoned.
At the funeral of five Afghans, including the two senior commanders, Hojjat al-Islam Ali Reza Panahian, a prominent conservative cleric, told mourners, “The enemy was stupid to kill the weak Afghans, as they are martyrs and mujahideen for the sake of Islam and the resistance front.”
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* Farnaz Fasehi
New York Times service
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