Exposé: Iran training Assad guerrillas

HOMS: The Syrian government is sending members of its irregular militias for guerrilla combat training at a secret base in Iran, in a move to bolster its armed forces drained by two years of fighting and defections, fighters and activists said.
Reuters interviewed four fighters who said they were taken on the combat course in Iran, as well as opposition sources who said they had also been documenting such cases.
Western diplomats have said Iran, Assad’s main backer, is helping to train at least 50,000 militiamen and aims to increase the force to 100,000 — though they did not say where the training occurred.
“It was an urban warfare course that lasted 15 days. The trainers said it’s the same course Hezbollah operatives normally do,” said Samer, a Christian member of a pro-Assad militia fighting in rural parts of Homs province in central Syria.
“The course teaches you the important elements of guerrilla warfare, like several different ways to carry a rifle and shoot, and the best methods to prepare against surprise attacks.” According to fighters interviewed in Homs, most men sent to undergo the training are from the Alawite sect.
“The Iranians kept telling us that this war is not against Sunnis but for the sake of Syria. But the Alawites on the course kept saying they want to kill the Sunnis and rape their women in revenge,” said Samer.
Since 2011, security forces organized groups called “popular committees” for neighborhood watches. These later became militias nicknamed “shabbiha,” from the Arabic word for ghost.
It is unclear how many former shabbiha fighters have been sent on courses in Iran, but some interviewees said they had assembled in groups of around 400 before being flown to Iran in smaller numbers. They believed the offer of training was open to many pro-Assad militias operating across Syria.
Syrian shabbiha fighters say Iran is also training Syrians and supporting their forces inside Syria, so it is not clear why courses have been run in Iran.
Nabeel, a muscular Christian fighter from Homs nicknamed “The Shameless One,” said Iranian trainers repeatedly lectured on looting, a crime widely committed by fighters on both sides.
“On our first day of training, the Iranian officer overseeing our course said, ‘I know exactly what is going on in Syria and want to tell you one thing: If you joined the National Defense Army for looting and not to defend your country, you will die an ugly death and go to hell’.”
The trainees interviewed said they were divided into groups. Some trained as ground forces with automatic rifles and mounted anti-aircraft guns, others as snipers. The groups were all flown from Latakia air base to Tehran International Airport and then directly bussed to an undisclosed location, they said.
“As soon as we arrived we were put on buses with windows covered by curtains and they told us not to open the curtains,” said the fighter Samer.
“We drove about an hour and a half before reaching the camp. It was straight from the airport to the camp, from the camp to the airport. We didn’t see anything other than that camp.”
All four combatants, who come from different towns and different militias, separately described the same experience. They said they were usually grouped into units of about 60 for training. The fighters said they were trained by Iranian officers who spoke Arabic but also relied on translators.
“There were some groups from Hezbollah training at the same base but there was no communication between our groups. They did their thing, and we did ours,” said Sameer, another militiaman from Homs. “I think their training was tougher than ours.”
The fighters described the training as far superior to skills they had been taught in courses inside Syria.