Iraqi Militias Deploy in Syria         12/02 06:11

   

   BEIRUT (AP) -- Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have deployed in Syria to back 
the government's counteroffensive against a surprise advance by insurgents who 
seized the largest city of Aleppo last week, a militia official and a war 
monitor said Monday.

   Insurgents led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham launched a two-pronged 
attack on Aleppo and moved into the countryside around Idlib and neighboring 
Hama province. The push is among the rebels' strongest in years and raised the 
prospect of another violent front reopening in the Middle East, at a time when 
U.S.-backed Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both 
Iranian-allied groups.

   It also risks drawing Russia and Turkey -- each with its own interests to 
protect in Syria -- into direct confrontation.

   Government troops built a fortified defensive line in northern Hama in an 
attempt to stall the insurgents' momentum while jets on Sunday pounded 
rebel-held lines. On Monday, Syria's military said that their airstrikes 
alongside Russia's killed 400 insurgents over the past 24 hours. It said that 
government forces were mobilizing to encircle the rebels in the Aleppo, Hama, 
and Idlib countrysides.

   Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call with Assad Monday said 
Tehran was willing to provide all the support needed to push back the 
insurgency. He echoed comments from Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi, who 
visited Assad Sunday before traveling to Ankara, Turkey, one of the rebels' 
main backers.

   Neither official further elaborated but Iran has been of Assad's principal 
political and military supporters and has deployed military advisers and forces 
after 2011 protests against Assad's rule turned into an all-out war.

   Tehran-backed Iraqi militias already in Syria mobilized and additional 
forces crossed the border to support Assad's government and army, said the 
Iraqi militia official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not 
authorized to speak to the media.

   According to Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for 
Human Rights, some 200 Iraqi militiamen on pickups crossed into Syria overnight 
through the strategic Bou Kamal crossing. They were expected to deploy in 
Aleppo to support the Syrian army's pushback against the insurgents, the 
monitor said.

   The rebel offensive in Syria has caused concern among neighboring countries 
that the conflict could spill over. In Iraq, Interior Ministry spokesperson 
Brig. Gen. Miqdad Miri said that security forces have deployed in greater 
numbers to protect their large border with Syria.

   The advance by the insurgents is a huge embarrassment for Assad, and it 
comes at a time when his allies -- Iran and groups it backs and Russia -- are 
preoccupied with their own conflicts.

   Russia, whose intervention in Syria's civil war on behalf of Assad was 
crucial in turning the conflict in his favor, has said it will continue to 
support him.

   "We, of course, continue to support Bashar Assad, we continue our contacts 
at the appropriate level and analyze the situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry 
Peskov told reporters Monday. "A position will be formed regarding what is 
needed to stabilize the situation."

   Syrian and Russian airstrikes on rebel positions continued mostly in Hama 
and Idlib provinces. At least 10 civilians were killed in Idlib city and 
province, according to the Syrian Civil Defense in opposition-held areas.

   Syrian Kurds were fleeing the fighting in large numbers after Turkish-backed 
rebels seized Tel Rifaat from rival U.S.-backed Kurdish authorities. The 
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces largely withdrew and called for a 
humanitarian corridor to allow people to leave safely in convoys toward Aleppo 
and later to Kurdish-led northeast regions.