The Afghans were killed because their bases in Syria tend to be simple, poorly constructed and they are used by Iran as cannon-fodder in Syria.
SETH J. FRANTZMAN FEBRUARY 6, 2024 10:51
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq targeted US forces in Jordan on January 27, killing three Americans. On Friday, February 2 the US responded, striking 85 targets in Iraq and Syria. Many of the targets were apparently empty buildings, but several reports online say that among the casualties were members of the Iranian-recruited Liwa Fatemiyoun, a unit of Shi’ite Afghans who serve Iran’s interests in Syria.
According to the sources, including Omar Abu Layla, a Syrian expert and head of Deir Ezzor 24, the number of Fatemiyoun killed included 8 men. Iran International reported similar information. This appears to confirm that the Afghan recruits were killed in the strikes? Why were Afghans killed in Syria, if the perpetrators were apparently linked to the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah. Kataib Hezbollah is worst of the Iranian-backed forces in Iraq. Worst, in the sense it is not only closely linked to the IRGC, but also because it is the most brutal and probably the best trained and most die hard of the Iranian-backed forces in Iraq.
The Afghans were killed because their bases in Syria tend to be simple, poorly constructed and they are used by Iran as cannon-fodder in Syria. Iran exploits poor Afghan Shi’ites, who are a persecuted minority in Afghanistan, luring them with promises of money and rewards of faith, to come to Syria and fight. They used them first during the Syrian civil war. These men embraced the Iranian ideology, even putting out statements threatening Israel.
They died in the dozens and hundreds over the last decade in Syria. Iran puts them on the frontline and in exposed positions. On February 2 they were once again exposed, apparently because Iran informed its other militias to evacuate their bases. The Afghans, who tend to be penniless, were left out in the open, and became victims of a foreign war that they have no real part in and where they have no reason to be located.
Days after the Afghans were reported killed in Syria, near the city of Deir Ezzor in the Euphrates River Valley, another incident took place in Syria. Days later on Monday, February 5, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria announced that “Six of our fighters were martyred during a terrorist attack by a suicide plane originating from areas controlled by Syrian regime mercenaries, targeting a training academy in the al-Omar field east of Deir ez-Zor.”
Iranian-backed forces in Syria targeted the SDF
It’s clear that Iranian-backed forces in Syria targeted the SDF. This is likely the Iranian “response” the US response, which itself was a response to the Iranian-backed militias murdering three Americans. Iranian-backed militias have carried out around 160 attacks on US forces since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, a decision by Iran to escalate attacks on the US and Israel.
The attack on the SDF appears to be an attempt by Iran to guide its militias to attack an area where US forces are present, but to target forces that work with the US. One could assert that this is a “proxy war” but the fact is that the SDF fighters, who include Kurds and Arabs; and the Afghans, didn’t sign on for a “proxy war.” The SDF was created in 2015 with US support as an umbrella group to bring together the Kurdish YPG, who were fighting ISIS in Syria, and also other Arab elements who wanted to join a larger group to fight ISIS.
The SDF is the main military force in eastern Syria. For years the group has been targeted by Turkey in airstrikes. Ankara backs extremists in northern Syria, most of whom hate Kurds. Ankara claims the SDF is linked to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). The SDF therefore have already paid a price for their work with the US. It is understood that Ankara’s strikes are a message to the US, killing SDF members to get back at the US for its role in eastern Syria. Turkey and the US are NATO allies so Turkey can’t attack US forces directly. The SDF therefore are an easy target. No one defends them, even though they work closely with US special forces and share facilities.
Now the Iranians have adopted the Turkish model apparently. Its militias have no murdered members of the SDF to get back at the US, as part of a larger Iranian campaign against the US in the region. Iran then purposely deploys Afghans in Syria in the open to be easy targets of the US retaliation. The entire process thus ends without either of the main forces involved, or the main countries involved, coming to blows.
US service members did pay the ultimate price in Jordan. However, rather than retaliating against the key IRGC officials and their collaborators in places like Iraq, it appears that many of the pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria were able to evacuate their camps between January 28 and February 1. Iran likely provided them with the details of where to go. Iran then appears to have left its Afghan human shields out in the open.
The full details of these incidents will likely remain clouded in some mystery. Whether the US knew it was targeting Iranian-backed Afghan forces and whether the Iranian’s purposely flew a drone into SDF forces, or whether the two are merely products of a complex war is unclear. However, the fact the six SDF members are now dead is a fact. It also appears to be that up to 8 of the Afghans were killed. The two groups who have the least role in this conflict and the least to gain by the conflict growing, are now paying a price.
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-785375.
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