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On Friday, Abu al-Atheer al-Khabouri, commander of Jaysh Maghawir al-Thawra – one of the US-backed Free Syrian Army groups – announced that they handed over the bodies of two Iranian fighters to Russia through the US-led coalition.
The two fighters were killed on August 5 near Al-Zafk base – a US-led coalition base – in the eastern Homs countryside near the Syrian-Iraqi border.
Abu al-Atheer al-Khabouri added that they had handed over the bodies to the US-led coalition which handed them over to the Russian troops on August 8. Jaysh Maghawir al-Thawra had retained the weapons and the car of the dead fighters. One of the dead fighters was an Iranian national, the other was an Afghan citizen, according to al-Khabouri. They had been fighting with a pro-Syrian Arab Army group.
In another development, Abu al-Atheer al-Khabouri announced that the US-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) would launch the battle to capture Deir Ezzor from al-Shadadi in the southern countryside of Hasaka province. Al-Khabouri stressed that the battle will be coordinated between the US-led coalition and FSA forces, adding that the main problem now is the transfer of fighters from At Tanf area to Al-Shaddadi.
It’s worth to mention that the FSA fighters in At Tanf had refused to work with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and refused their participation in any way in the battle of Deir Ezzor, reflecting the large Kurdish-Arab disagreements in the eastern region of Syria.
