The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Turkish-Iranian cooperation in Syria | IRGC discloses identities of its members killed in Khan Tuman battles

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) acknowledged of the death of five commanders in battles with jihadist and Islamist factions of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities in Khan Tuman in Aleppo countryside in 2016. This followed DNA tests on the bodies which had been found in Khan Tuman area.

 

According to a statement by IRGC, five bodies have been identified. Those members were from “the Defenders of Ahl Al-Bayt Shrines,” as the statement described, from the provinces of Mazandaran, Alborz and Fars. These members are: Brigadier General Abdullah Iskandari, Brigadier General Raheem Kabli, Mustafa Tash Musa, Mohammed Amin Karimiyan and Abbas Ismiyah.

 

In Islam, ideology “Ahl al-Bayt” (the people of the house) refers to the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

 

It is worth noting that jihadist and Islamist factions managed to take the control of Khan Tuman in 2013.

 

In 2016, fierce clashes erupted between jihadist and Islamist factions of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities on one hand, and regime forces, Iranian-backed militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah on the other. These battles witnessed attacks with booby-trapped vehicles and by suicide bombers.

 

It is also worth noting that Turkish forces withdrew from Khan Tuman post in late 2020, after they and the factions provided information about the bodies which had been buried in that area.

 

In 2020, IRGC transported the remains of its members who had been killed in Khan Tuman to Iran in order to do DNA tests on them.