Dying for Assad 10 / Liwa Fatemiyoun (August-November 2016)

I stopped in August 2016 for the last post about Liwat Fatemiyoun: this one extends until the end of November 2016.

According to an article by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the latest statements by the last deputy deputy commander of Liwa Fatemiyoun, Sayyed Hassan Husseini, also known as Sayyed Hakim, enumerate the Afghan contingent to 14,000 men, organized in 3 brigades in Damascus , Hama and Aleppo with their own artillery, armored vehicles and intelligence services. This is in contradiction with most of the figures that put the number of Afghans at 3,000, or even a little more, between 5 and 10,000. The Afghans are trained in Iran at Qarchak, southwest of Tehran, for two to three weeks. The Iranians are seeking to have their "proxies" in Syria fighting in the most independent way as possible. Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Falaki, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war where he commanded a mechanized brigade of a division of infantry, a member of the Pasdarans, served with Fatemiyoun in Syria. The first contingent in Syria was allegedly made up of 25 veterans from the Abouzar brigade of the Iran-Iraq war and from the Mohamed Corps of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan : none survived. Initially, the Afghans are fighting with Iraqi Shiites, mostly within Liwa Abu Fadl al-Abbas. It is only at the end of 2013 that Liwa Fatemiyoun, which takes its name from Fatima (daughter of the prophet buried in Qoms in Iran) is organized.

On 11 September, Morteza Ataei (Abu-Ali), an officer of Liwa Fatemiyoun, was killed in the province of Latakia. In mid-September, Liwa Fatemiyoun effectively operates with Suqur al-Sahara in Kinsabba, in the northern province of Latakia. On 21 September, a video shows the fighters of Liwa Fatemiyoun displaying their flag on a mosque south of Aleppo. A video of 30 October shows (probably in Aleppo) a convoy of the Fatemiyoun : a Toyota Land Cruiser with KPV protected by a shield leads the way, a second of the same type (without shield, with the flag of Fatemiyoun) closes the column, followed by a Land Cruiser with twin-tube ZU-23, then another Land Cruiser with KPV/shield ; between the technicals, vehicles carrying about fifty men, probably more. In early November 2016, the Iranian agency Fars published photos of Liwa Fatemiyoun in combat in Aleppo, handling 152 mm D-20 howitzers, confirming that the unit had its own artillery. We also see that the Afghans are armed with an Iranian AM-50 anti-material sniper rifle AM-50. A late October video shows Afghans using a Type 63 LRM mounted on Iranian Safir light vehicle. The Afghans also have a truck with a 57 mm S-60 gun. These last documents show a unit of the Fatemiyoun on another front (east of the province of Homs, towards Palmyra ?). Images of 11 November show that the Fatemiyoun snipers use AM-50, SVD Dragunov and are also trained in firing on anti-tank guided missile. Iran would have set up a base camp for its foreign fighters east of Mount Tell Azan (15 km south of Aleppo) : for example, it is known that the Shiite Iraqis of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba would have their base In Rasm Bakru, just east of the mountain, 16 km west of al-Safira. Liwa Fatemiyoun would be there also as well as Hezbollah and Liwa al-Quds. In Qom, Iran, an entire cemetery is dedicated to the dead of Fatemiyoun and Liwa Zaynabiyoun, his Pakistani Shiite counterpart. On August 25, 4 killed of the Fatemiyoun are buried in Iran. On 29 August, two dead were buried in Mashad. On 1 September, 3 Fatemiyoun fighters are buried in Iran. On 17 September, Ali Ahmad Hosseini, a child-soldier Fatemiyoun fighter, was buried in Iran. On September 22, Tehran announced the death of 6 Fatemiyoun fighters. On 5 October, four Fatemiyoun fighters were buried in Qom. On October 20, a Fatemiyoun fighter killed in Syria is buried in Mashad, Iran. On 2 November, 5 Afghans killed in Aleppo were buried in Qom. On November 10, 10 fighters of Liwa Fatemiyoun who died in Syria are buried in Qom, Iran. Idris Bayati, a child soldier, is buried in Nadjafabad. On 15 November, 6 Fatemiyoun fighters were declared dead in Aleppo. On 20 November, the repatriation of 13 bodies from Liwa Fatemiyoun to Iran is announced. On 30 November, during the fighting in Aleppo, the Syrian rebels captured an Afghan from Liwa Fatemiyoun; That day 7 Afghans are buried in Qom. As of November 29, 2016, Ali Alfoneh counts 508 Afghans dead in Syria since September 2013, of which 26 only for the month of November 2016.