Iran Recruits Afghans to Defend Assad, their Numbers is a ‘Military Secret’

Syrian pro-regime forces hold a position in Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed district, on December 12, 2016 (AFP PHOTO / GEORGE OURFALIAN)
Syrian pro-regime forces hold a position in Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed district, on December 12, 2016 (AFP PHOTO / GEORGE OURFALIAN)
TT
20

Iran Recruits Afghans to Defend Assad, their Numbers is a ‘Military Secret’

Syrian pro-regime forces hold a position in Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed district, on December 12, 2016 (AFP PHOTO / GEORGE OURFALIAN)
Syrian pro-regime forces hold a position in Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed district, on December 12, 2016 (AFP PHOTO / GEORGE OURFALIAN)

Fleeing grinding poverty and unemployment, thousands of Afghan Shi’ites have been recruited by Iran to defend the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad.

"For me it was just about money," Shams, a former fighter, told Agence France Presse.

Hurman Rights Watch says the Iranians refuse to provide accurate figures, but estimates there are nearly 15,000 Afghans fighting for Fatemiyoun.

Shams, a 25-year-old member of the Hazara ethnic group, went to Syria twice in 2016 to fight in a conflict that has now been raging for more than six years.

"I went there (Iran) because I was jobless and it was a way to get money for my family," said Shams.

"My idea was to find a job in Iran. I had no plan to go to fight in Syria but after a month of being jobless I decided to go.

"They were encouraging us saying 'you will be a freedom fighter and if you return to Iran alive you can stay with a 10-year residence permit'."

Afghan Shi’ites are given 1.5 million toman (about $450) to register at a recruitment center for the Fatemiyoun, Shams said. Once they have signed up they receive three million toman a month, a fortune for many poor Afghans. 

Shams' first mission was in June 2016 in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where he was assigned to protect a barracks for two months.  

He went back to the country in September and was deployed to Aleppo, where he was given his first AK-47 after receiving rudimentary weapons training from Iran's Revolutionary Guards. 

On the front line of the battle between ISIS militants and Al-Nusra Front group, Shams said he found himself caught up in an intense and deadly battle. 

"In Aleppo we faced an ambush -- out of 100 fighters we lost almost all of them. There were 15 of us left alive," Shams said. 

"The bodies were sent back to Iran and the families in Afghanistan held funeral ceremonies in mosques without a coffin or grave."

Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council, estimates more than 760 Afghans have been killed in Syria since September 2013.  

The number of Afghans fighting for the Fatemiyoun is a “military secret,” said Ramazan Bashardost, a Hazara member of parliament in Kabul.

"They are used by the Iranian government, which treats them like slaves," he said.

"The sorrow, pain and hunger of the people is not a major concern of the Afghan government,” he added.



Trump Sets New Deadline of 10 or 12 Days for Russia to Act on Ukraine

 In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire in a fire department school following a Russian air attack in Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire in a fire department school following a Russian air attack in Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
TT
20

Trump Sets New Deadline of 10 or 12 Days for Russia to Act on Ukraine

 In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire in a fire department school following a Russian air attack in Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire in a fire department school following a Russian air attack in Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

US President Donald Trump set a new deadline on Monday of 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine or face consequences, underscoring frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 3-1/2-year-old conflict.

Trump has threatened both sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. The fresh deadline suggests the US president is prepared to move forward on those threats after previous hesitation to do so.

Speaking in Scotland, where he is holding meetings with European leaders and playing golf, Trump said he was disappointed in Putin and shortening a 50-day deadline he had set on the issue earlier this month.

"I'm going to make a new deadline of about ... 10 or 12 days from today," Trump told reporters during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "There's no reason in waiting... We just don't see any progress being made."

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.

Ukraine welcomed the statement. Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, thanked Trump in a social media post for "standing firm and delivering a clear message of peace through strength."

Trump, who has expressed annoyance also with Zelenskiy, has not always followed tough talk about Putin with action, citing what he deems a good relationship that the two men have had previously.

On Monday, Trump indicated he was not interested in more talks with Putin. He said sanctions and tariffs would be used as penalties for Moscow if it did not meet Trump's demands.

"There's no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs," Trump said. "I don't want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people."

Ukraine had proposed a summit between Putin and Zelenskiy before the end of August, but the Kremlin has said that timeline was unlikely and that a meeting could only happen as a final step to clinch peace.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Saturday that if the West wanted real peace with Ukraine, it would stop supplying Kyiv with weapons.

Trump has repeatedly voiced exasperation with Putin for pursuing attacks on Ukraine despite US efforts to end the war. Trump has played up successes in other parts of the world where the United States has helped to broker peace agreements and has been flattered by some leaders who suggest he should be given the Nobel Peace Prize.

"I'm disappointed in President Putin," Trump said on Monday. "I'm going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number because I think I already know the answer what's going to happen."

Trump, who is also struggling to achieve a peace deal in Gaza, has touted his role in ending conflicts between India and Pakistan as well as Rwanda and Congo. Before returning to the White House in January, Trump campaigned on a promise to end Russia's conflict with Ukraine in a day.

"We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever," Trump said. "And I say that's not the way to do it."