Iran withdraws forces from Syria under pressure from the Israeli army

The Reuters news agency reported on Thursday February 1 that Iran withdrew dozens of officers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards from Syria after an increase in Israeli strikes which in recent weeks have left at least six dead, including two generals in the ranks of this elite corps of the Islamic Republic.

A member of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on April 29, 2022 in Tehran. via REUTERS - WANA NEWS AGENCY

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With our correspondent in Beirut,

Paul Khalifeh

Whatever the scale of the withdrawal of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards from Syria, it is directly linked to Israeli strikes and Washington's threats of retaliation after the January 27 death in Jordan of three American soldiers in a drone attack .

News of the Iranian withdrawal came after CBS News announced that plans had been approved by the United States for "

a series of strikes over several days against various targets

." Among these are “

Iranian personnel and installations, inside Iraq and Syria

”, specifies CBS.

The withdrawal of Iranian officers is therefore a precautionary measure. But it could also be interpreted as a sign of de-escalation. It comes two days after the announcement by an Iraqi group close to Iran of the suspension of its attacks against American targets.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are deploying hundreds of men in Syria under the designation of “advisors” at the request of Damascus. They are responsible for training and supervising thousands of militiamen, mostly Shiites, recruited locally or transported from Iraq and Afghanistan, to fight alongside the Syrian army. Since last December, more than half a dozen of these “advisors,”

including a senior

Iranian intelligence official, have been killed in Israeli attacks.

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