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Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/20/iran-brutalizing-aleppo-executing-most-atrocious-w/
Iran Is Brutalizing Aleppo
(Washington Times) Rowan Scarborough - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force has played an extensive role in Aleppo, building a network of bases around the Syrian city and directing militiamen from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan to do the killing, the Iranian opposition group People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) says in a new intelligence report. "Aleppo has been occupied by the IRGC and its mercenaries," amassing an army of 25,000 Iranian and militia troops in and around Aleppo. These include homegrown Syrian mercenaries who receive cash transferred from Tehran to Damascus. The MEK report says that Syrian government forces are scarce around Aleppo, meaning it is Iran doing the lion's share of offensive maneuvers and killing. The MEK report identifies Iranian leaders in Aleppo, the locations of bases, the foreign militias doing the killing and how Iran pays them. Jim Phillips, a Middle East expert at the Heritage Foundation, said, "Without Iran's expanding military intervention, the Assad regime would have fallen months ago....Iran has been responsible for almost all of the ground offensives in recent months that clawed back territory from the rebels and encircled Aleppo. It has deployed thousands of Revolutionary Guards."