Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly alleged Israeli strikes and will rely more on allied Shiite militia to preserve their sway there, five sources familiar with the matter tell Reuters.
The Guards have suffered one of their most bruising spells in Syria since arriving a decade ago to aid President Bashar Assad in the Syrian war. Since December, strikes blamed on Israel have killed more than half a dozen of their members, among them one of the Guards’ top intelligence generals.
As hardliners in Tehran demand retaliation, Iran’s decision to pull out senior officers is driven partly by its aversion to being sucked directly into a conflict bubbling across the Middle East, three of the sources say.
While the sources say Iran has no intention of quitting Syria, a key part of Tehran’s sphere of influence, the rethink underscores how the consequences of the war ignited by Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel are unfolding in the region.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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