WASHINGTON: Iran is stepping up its military and intelligence support for Syrian government troops in their crackdown against opposition strongholds, The Washington Post reported late Saturday.
Citing three unnamed US officials with access to intelligence reports from the region, the newspaper said Tehran had increased supplies of arms and other aid for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as he is trying crush resistance in the key city of Homs.
"The aid from Iran is increasing, and is increasingly focused on lethal assistance," the paper quotes one of the officials as saying.
Reports supported by US intelligence findings indicate that an Iranian operative was recently wounded while working with Syrian security forces inside the country, the paper said.
"They've supplied equipment, weapons and technical assistance -- even monitoring tools -- to help suppress unrest," The Post quoted the official as saying of Iranians. "Iranian security officials also traveled to Damascus to help deliver this assistance."
A second senior US official said Iran has recently dispatched members of its main intelligence service, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, to Damascus to assist in advising and training Syrian counterparts in charge of the crackdown, according to the report.
The head of the Quds Force, Brigier General Qassem Suleimani, also has paid at least one visit to Damascus in recent weeks, the paper noted, citing US officials.
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@Anonymous Really? Thanks for enlightening me. I was so stupid that I thought it was the Saudi fundOmentalists and remnants of Zia regime alongside all the corrupt feudal and armed forces elite. Btw, it must be you yourself who liked this comment of your, is'nt it?
Watching a brutal regime kill scores of people day after day with impunity, that it may stay in power, makes accomplices of us all. History will be unkind. McCain is right. We have sat on this one out too long. The time to act is now. And we may already be too late.
No doubt Iran will do all it can to keep Assad's regime, its only, natural ally in the region, afloat. Once Assad is gone, it will lose its conduit to the Shia-led Hezbollah in Lebanon, a proxy it uses against Israel. Assad's forces are not short of military hardware, but they don't necessarily have enough manpower. Troops can not be deployed to all hotspot at the same time. Recently regime forces have been in Homs, but they can hold it for any lenght of time. Once the operation ends they have to be withdrawn and be sent to somewhere else. The local militias will then return and regain control once the enemies leave.
@reality fully agree
@ali:
Kamenai is not at all hated by the single Irani. Mr Ali get your fact right first then talk rubbish and stupid. This is due to Khameni that people in Iran are united with respect to foriegn and nuclear policy. No nation in this world is united like them inculding the Saudi Arabian. The so called khademain e Haraimain Sharaifain is the the biggesty licker of the shoe of Obama even they are ready to lick the shoe of Obama's janitorial staff.
Iranian's will never be blamed for the evil it has created in the entire region, atleast not in pakistan, where the shia minority is getting similar training from Iran as the brutal assads of syria are getting. It is about time that shia should chose are they even pakistani if not why not go to iran and live with their beloved khomenites (who btw are hated by most iranians themselves)
iran is creating problems in pak too.