The Iran regime sent a veteran commander from its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to Syria in response to last week’s surprise insurgent offensive against the Ba'athist dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.
State-controlled media in the theocracy revealed that Javad Ghaffari arrived in Damascus Tuesday, following the Islamic Republic's foreign minister indicating Tehran would deploy military personnel to support the Syrian government if requested.
Ghaffari spent six years in Syria leading Islamic Republic proxy forces until he was reportedly asked to leave the country by al-Assad's administration in late 2021, allegedly for planning unauthorized maneuvers against Israeli and American targets in the region.
The general is known by his critics as "the butcher of Aleppo" for his purported use of excessive force during a 2016 engagement to expel opposition fighters from the city, where he was accused of failing to distinguish between civilians and militants. The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that more than 20,000 non-combatants were killed in his efforts to secure the municipality.
In 2022, Ghaffari was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department while heading the IRGC’s Special Operations Division. He was suspected of orchestrating operations targeting Iranian dissidents abroad, including the 2019 kidnapping of Paris-based regime critic Ruhollah Zam. The 42-year-old journalist was later executed at Gohardasht Prison near Tehran.
Ghaffari's return could further highlight the Islamic Republic’s dedication to backing its Syrian allies as they navigate the ongoing civil war that has engulfed the area since 2011.
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