Beirut [Lebanon], February 2: Key officers from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) stationed in Syria have evacuated their positions in anticipation of a US strike, activists told DPA.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told DPA on Thursday that high-ranking commanders had left their positions along the Syrian-Iraqi border.
"Some of the Iranian key advisors and commanders have withdrawn totally from their posts in al-Bou Kamal on the Syrian-Iraqi border," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the monitoring agency said.
Abdel Rahman said that some top commanders moved to the Syrian capital Damascus and a few went to Tehran. "Other lower-ranking IRGC members have been redeployed in eastern and central Syria and deployed within their regions," he said.
According to Abdel Rahman, the posts in the Syrian-Iraqi border region had been handed over to militias allied with Iran.
Both movements were given strict orders from their Iranian backers, not to launch any attack against US bases in the area, he added. Abu Mohammed, an activist from Dair as-Saur, told DPA that pro-Iranian militia posts in the area are on high alert.
Three US soldiers were killed and about two dozen others were injured in a drone attack on a US military outpost in Jordan near the Syrian border, on Sunday.
US President Joe Biden blamed radical militant groups backed by Iran for the attack and threatened to retaliate. Iran has denied any involvement.
The attack occurred at the logistics support base at Tower 22 of the Jordanian Defense Network. Around 350 US Army and Air Force personnel are deployed to the base, conducting key support functions, including support to the international coalition in the fight against the Islamic State. US forces were deployed to Syria in 2015 to assist the Syrian Kurds.
Iran has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main backer since civil war broke out in the country in 2011. (DPA)
Source: Qatar Tribune
