Iranian role
The Quds Force under General Qasem Soleimani has been involved in support of the Assad government since the very beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. This support has taken many forms, chief among them military support in terms of training, logistics, deployments of allied militias to Syria (particularly Shi'ite militias), operational and strategic planning, intelligence-sharing and weaponry. Iran is estimated to be providing the equivalent of many billions of dollars in financial aid.[36] Key victories were achieved with substantial support provided by the Quds force, namely the al-Ghab plains battles, Aleppo offensives, Dara'aya offensives of 2015 and the al-Qusayr offensives which established government and Hezbollah control over the northern Qalamoun region and the border crossings from Lebanon to Syria.After the loss of Idlib province to a rebel offensive in the first half of 2015, the situation was judged to have become critical for Assad's survival. High level talks were initiated between Moscow and Iran which continue to this day which involved the Russian and Iranian foreign ministers, concerning possible solutions to the Syrian conflicts. On 24 July, ten days after the signing of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 countries, General Qasem Soleimani visited Moscow.[97] Though the exact content of the meeting between Soleimani and Putin is widely speculated about, there is growing consensus that the chief matter at hand was a plan of coordinated escalation of military forces in Syria.[98]
In mid-September 2015, the first reports of new detachments from the Iranian revolutionary guards arriving in Tartous and Latakia in west Syria were made. With much of the SAA and NDF units deployed to more volatile fronts, the Russian Marines and Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) have relieved their positions by installing military checkpoints inside the cities of Slunfeh (east Latakia Governorate), Masyaf (east Tartous Governorate) and Ras Al-Bassit (Latakia coastal city).[99] There were also further reports of new Iranian contingents being deployed to Syria in early October 2015.[100] It is generally thought that Iran will be playing a leading role in the ground operations of Syria's army and allies, whilst Russia will be leading in the air in conjunction with the Syrian air force, thereby establishing a complementary role.[16]
Outside of the battlefield itself the Iranian government has dramatically increased its efforts in supporting the Syrian government and its military. Recently there has been an exponential increase in recruitment efforts aimed at drawing on Shi'ite militias in Iraq in order to deploy them to Syria.[24] One of the leading militias in Iran's efforts to bolster the war effort in Syria is Kata'ib al-Imam Ali, with Jaafar al-Bindawi, the militia's former head of training and logistics, would be leading the deployment in Syria, while Ali Nizam would serve as the new logistical director for Syrian affairs. Another important allied militia in this context is Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba which similar to Kata'ib al-Imam Ali was formed with Iranian assistance from mainly former Sadrist supporters and fighters. There is increasing evidence that these Iranian-backed militias are not only operating under Iranian guidance but are also cooperating with the Russian military command established in Syria.[24]
On 8 October reports came in of the death of General Hamadani, the deputy to General Qasem Soleimani in Syria. Initially it was claimed that he fell to gun-fire from ISIL militants in northern Aleppo whilst advising the troop build-up on that front.[101] However it later transpired that the cause of his death was an auto-mobile accident.[2] It is thought that his death will significantly delay the ground-operations in northern Syria as Hamadani was the primary strategist in the planning of the coming operations.[2]
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Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
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