(BBC News) Yalda Hakim - In September, Syrian rebels captured video footage filmed by a cameraman embedded with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the ground in Syria to support the Assad regime. Its authenticity has been verified by BBC experts. A Revolutionary Guards commander, Ismail Heydari, is featured. The footage shows the Iranians instructing and organizing a new pro-regime militia known as the National Defense Force, or NDF, many of whose members were trained in Iran. According to Heydari, the Revolutionary Guards also engage in behind-the-lines combat operations. "Either we target the places the rebels are with artillery or we target the routes they use with landmines or roadside bombs. And the third option is to do a commando raid. We do this quite often: we attack an area they are gathered in. We destroy them," Heydari said. The Revolutionary Guards commander was killed two days later.
2013-10-31 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive