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Syria's Mercenaries: The Afghans Fighting Assad's War
(Der Spiegel-Germany) Christoph Reuter - The Assad family dictatorship is running out of soldiers and is becoming increasingly reliant on mercenaries. Afghans, Pakistanis and Iranians have been taken prisoner by rebel groups in Aleppo. Some 700 men from Afghanistan's Hazara Shiite minority are thought to have lost their lives in Aleppo and Daraa alone. Up to 2 million Hazara live in Iran, most of them as illegal immigrants. Iran's Revolutionary Guards have recruited thousands for the war in Syria over the last year and a half in return for money and residence permits.