Iran sends fresh troops into Syria as Assad gov’t prepares counterattack

Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have deployed to Syria to back President Bashar Assad’s counteroffensive against Sunni jihadi insurgents who have captured large portions of northwestern Syria, including most of the city of Aleppo.

An Iraqi military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Iraqi militias in Syria have already been deployed to the war effort and that additional forces have crossed the border, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

Some 200 Iraqi militants on pickup trucks crossed into Syria overnight on Sunday through the strategic Al-Qa’im border crossing, near Abu Kamal in Deir ez-Zor Province, said the Syria Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition war monitor.  (Read More)