17 Iranian soldiers killed in Syria’s Aleppo

As many as 17 Iranian soldiers were killed in the province of Aleppo in northern Syria on Sunday, sources in the Syrian opposition claimed.

The sources said that the members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards were killed in an attack on the town of Khan Tuman in the southern countryside of Aleppo following clashes with opposition factions who control the town and its surroundings.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday that as many as 20 Iranian militants were killed during battles to control the town of Khan Tuman with gunmen from Jaish al-Fatah or Army of Conquest in what it described as the biggest loss experienced by Iran in a single day in Syria.

However, Iran’s Fars news agency reported Hossein Ali Rezaei, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard in the northern province of Mazandaran, as saying that only 13 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards were killed and 21 were wounded.

Khan Tuman was captured by Jaish al-Fatah or Army of Conquest, an ultraconservative group led by Al-Nusra Front, and the militias Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham.

Fighting has intensified in the countryside of Aleppo over the past few days despite Moscow’s announcement of a ceasefire in the city last Wednesday.