Iraqi fighters head to Syria to battle rebels, but Hezbollah said staying out of fight

Hundreds of Iran-backed Iraqi fighters crossed into Syria on Monday to help the government fight rebels who seized Aleppo last week, while Lebanon’s Hezbollah has no plans for now to join them, according to sources.

Iran’s constellation of allied regional militia groups, aided by Russian air power, has been integral to the success of pro-government forces in subduing rebels who rose up against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011.

But that alliance faces a new test after last week’s lightning advance by rebels in northwest Syria, with Russia focused on war in Ukraine and Hezbollah’s leadership decimated by a war it launched against Israel 14 months ago that came to a halt with a ceasefire agreement last week.

The rebel storm of Aleppo is the biggest success of anti-Assad fighters for years. Government forces had held complete control of Aleppo since capturing what was then Syria’s largest city in a siege in 2016, one of the major turning points of a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The head of Syria’s main opposition group abroad, Hadi al-Bahra, told Reuters that the rebels were able to seize the city so quickly because Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups were distracted by their conflict with Israel.

Preparations were made since last year for an assault on Aleppo, but it was held up by the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, he said.

Syria’s civil war had been frozen since 2020, with Assad in control of most territory and all major cities. Rebels still held an enclave in the northwest, Turkey-backed forces held a strip along the northern border and US-backed, Kurdish-led forces controlled a pocket in the northeast.

Any prolonged escalation in Syria risks further destabilizing a region roiled by the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, with millions of Syrians already displaced and with regional and global powers backing rival forces in the country.

Iraqi and Syrian sources confirmed the deployment of more Iran-backed Iraqi fighters to Syria. Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran “will provide any support needed” and that “resistance groups” would come to Assad’s aid.

At least 300 fighters, primarily from Iraq’s Badr and Nujabaa groups, crossed late on Sunday using a dirt road to avoid the official border crossing, two Iraqi security sources said, adding that they were there to defend a Shi’ite shrine.

A senior Syrian military source said the fighters had crossed in small groups to avoid airstrikes. “These are fresh reinforcements being sent to aid our comrades on the front lines in the north,” the source said.

The head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, which includes the major Shi’ite militia groups aligned with Iran, said no group under its umbrella had entered Syria, and that it does not operate outside Iraq.

But Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group, which is the most capable Iran-backed force in Assad’s military alliance in Syria, has not yet been asked to intervene and was not ready to send forces after the 14-month-long war it initiated with Israel, said three sources familiar with the group’s thinking.

In recent months, Hezbollah withdrew its operatives from Syria, including the north, to focus on battling Israel in southern Lebanon, after the IDF launched its ground operation in late September after a year of near-daily Hezbollah attacks displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.

The rebels who swept this week into Aleppo pointed to Hezbollah’s withdrawal as one of the reasons they faced little resistance from government forces.

Hezbollah bases and weapons shipments through Syria have been repeatedly hit by Israel, which has sought to weaken Iran across the region.

Arab countries and Washington have seen the weakening of Hezbollah as a potential opportunity to peel Assad away from his alliance with Iran.

Sources have told Reuters that the United Arab Emirates and United States had been discussing the possibility of lifting sanctions against Assad if he reduces his reliance on Tehran. The rebel advance could complicate this if it pushes Assad to depend more on Iranian support.

Deadly strikes

Russia, whose 2015 entry into the conflict turned the military balance decisively in Assad’s favor, continues to support him and is analyzing the situation on the ground, the Kremlin said.

On Sunday, Moscow dismissed the general in charge of its forces in Syria, Russian war bloggers reported.

The Syrian government said Syrian and Russian air forces were striking rebel-held positions in the countryside east of Aleppo city.

The White Helmets rescue organization and residents of rebel-held areas in the north said warplanes had hit residential areas of Aleppo city and a displaced people’s camp in Idlib province where seven people were killed, including five children.

The government said the military was working to secure a string of towns recaptured from rebels on Sunday that run along the front line north of Hama, a major city lying between Aleppo and Damascus. Rebel shelling of Hama killed three people on Monday, state television said.

The Syrian government said it had killed hundreds of rebel fighters in recent days, which Reuters could not independently confirm.

The rebels fighting in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama provinces in northwest Syria include mainstream groups backed by Turkey as well as the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria which has led the recent rebel offensive.

A Turkish official told Reuters that Ankara had not given any permission for the rebel offensive, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took no instructions from Turkey.

The Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers discussed the fighting in Syria on Monday. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said rebel advances could not be explained by foreign intervention and urged the Syrian opposition to compromise.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Monday that the military was closely following the events in Syria and has observed Tehran sending forces to bolster Assad’s regime.

Hagari said that “Syria belongs to the Syrians” and that “what is happening in Syria concerns Syria and not Israel” — but the IDF “will make sure that Iran does not smuggle weapons to Lebanon and Hezbollah.”

“We need to make sure that we are not threatened. We are a sovereign country and we will make sure that Iranian weapons are not smuggled to Hezbollah,” he said.

“Hezbollah was defeated in the campaign and it is necessary to make sure that it does not receive weapons from Iran through Syria,” Hagari said. “And if they try to do it, we will act accordingly.”

Israel has already operated against suspected attempts to rearm Hezbollah, and over the weekend blocked an Iranian flight over Syria that was believed to have been ferrying arms to the terror group.

Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency said the Ankara-backed Syrian National Army had taken the town of Tel Rifaat from the Kurdish YPG militia and was advancing in outer areas of the district.

Rebel sources and an Aleppo resident said the Kurdish YPG group was pulling out of longstanding positions in the city’s Sheikh Maqsoud district under a deal with rebel forces.