Iranian official: Hezbollah has lost ‘thousands’ in Syria fighting

Iranian Brigadier Yahya Rahim Safavi, a military advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has said that the Lebanese Shia Hezbollah organisation, an Iranian proxy, has lost thousands of men in their war to defend the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Safavi also confirmed that Colonel Hossein Hamadani, recently killed in Syria, had set up a force of local militias to fight in Syria that now numbered 20,000 men, according to a report from Al Jazeera.

This statement comes as reports yesterday indicated that seven Hezbollah fighters were killed in clashes in Aleppo, currently under an offensive by Syrian opposition groups looking to break the regime’s siege on areas it holds in eastern Aleppo.

Last month saw Hezbollah sustain losses of over 30 men, including officers and commanders in the Shia militant group.

The Iranians themselves have suffered losses in Syria, with last week seeing the death of General Gholam Reza Samai, a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Some analysts suggest that Iran has lost 1,300 military personnel since the revolt against the Assad regime began in 2011, with more than 300 of those losses occurring in the past 12 months alone.