Senior Iranian officer leads assault in Syria

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A senior Iranian commander is coordinating an assault on the Syrian city Aleppo by a mix of Shiite forces from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq in support of Syrian troops, militiamen say, an indication of deepening Iranian involvement in Syria's war that has transcended national boundaries.

Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's elite Quds forces and the public face of Iran's military intervention in the region, has ordered thousands of Shiite militiamen into Syria for an operation to recapture Aleppo, according to officials from three Iraqi militias. The militiamen are to join Iranian troops and forces from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militia, the officials said. The Iraqi Shiite militia Kitaeb Hezbollah has sent around 1,000 fighters from Iraq, one said.

The new arrivals shore up the position of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose beleaguered forces had been losing ground before Russia began launching airstrikes three weeks ago. Pro-government forces have claimed victory in a string of villages around Aleppo in recent days, in a conflict that Shiite militias frame as a single regional struggle between Shiites and Sunni extremists from the Islamic State.

"It makes no difference whether we're in Iraq or Syria, we consider it the same front line because we are fighting the same enemy," said Bashar al-Saidi, a spokesman for Harakat al-Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi Shiite militia that says it has fighters around Aleppo. "We are all the followers of Khamenei and will go and fight to defend the holy sites and Shiites everywhere," he said, referring to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Saidi said the group has been sending reinforcements to Syria for several months and is largely present in Aleppo. He declined to give numbers.

Saidi quoted Soleimani as saying that "the road to liberate Mosul is through Aleppo." He referred to the Iraqi city that Islamic State militants seized in June last year and that has become the group's de facto capital in Iraq.

The Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Quds Force, which is part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, have also sent reinforcements, he said. Last week, a U.S. defense official said hundreds of Iranian troops were near the city in preparation for an offensive.

"It's not a secret. We are all fighting against the same enemy," said Saidi.

His militia released a photo of Soleimani, the Quds Force commander, with its fighters near Aleppo on one of its social media accounts last week.

In August, U.S. officials raised concerns with Moscow about news that Soleimani, then subject to a U.N. travel ban, had traveled to Moscow in July to meet with President Vladimir Putin. Just short of two months later, both countries were escalating their involvement in Syria in support of Assad.

Kitaeb Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia designated a terrorist organization by the United States, sent 1,000 troops to Aleppo this weekend, said a senior militia official.