Iranian military in Syria | IRGC turns a mosque in al-Mayadeen into military headquarters

Deir Ezzor province: Reliable sources in al-Maydeen city in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, have told the Syrian Observatory that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have turned the mosque in al-Tamou neighbourhood into a military headquarters. It is worth noting that IRGC had turned this mosque into a “hosayniya”, a congregation hall for Twelver Shia Muslim commemoration ceremonies, for their proxy militiamen, where the Shiite Azan was used and Shiite ritual was practiced, as SOHR revealed at that time.

 

According to SOHR sources, the Iranian-backed militias forewent the mosque and turned it into a military headquarters after they had accomplished the construction of new mosque and “hosayniya” in the same neighbourhood by the Iranian organization of “Jehad al-Benaa”.

 

On May 22, SOHR sources reported growing popular anger among the residents of al-Tamou neighbourhood in Al-Mayadeen city in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor over the Iranian-backed militias’ rejection of the return of these residents to their houses. It is worth noting that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian-backed forces seized all houses in al-Tamou neighbourhood since November 2017.

 

Since the Iranian-backed militias took over the neighbourhood, they turned many of the civilians’ houses into headquarters, while the other houses used as residence for the Iranian-backed militiamen’s families, as the militias prevents civilians and combatants of other militias from entering the neighbourhood. The militias also used the neighbourhood’s mosque as a private mosque for their members, where the Shiite Azan was used and Shiite ritual was practiced.

 

Reliable sources told SOHR that most of the neighbourhood’s residents living in Deir Ezzor city agreed on entrusting ten people of them as representatives. However, when these representatives met with IRGC commanders, asking them to allow the neighbourhood’s residents to return to their houses, the commanders refused under the pretext that “they are present in the area for the glorious duty of jihad”. The commanders also asked the residents to embrace the “jihadists”, the Iranian-backed militiamen.

 

It is worth noting that the people of al-Tamou neighbourhood were forced to rent houses in other areas in the city, while others were forced to displace to other Syrian province.