WATCH: Iran-backed militia fighter scrawls Qasem Soleimani's name on missile 'bound for Aleppo'

WATCH: Iran-backed militia fighter scrawls Qasem Soleimani's name on missile 'bound for Aleppo'
A video circulating on social media shows an Iran-backed paramilitary fighter scrawling the slain general's name on a missile allegedly bound for Aleppo.
2 min read
11 February, 2020
Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi paramilitary group fighting alongside Asad's forces in Syria [Getty]
Videos circulating on social media purport to show a pro-Syrian regime Iraqi militia fighter marking the name of slain Iranian General Qasem Soleimani on a missile bound for Aleppo.

The commander of Iran's elite Quds Force was killed alongside Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Hashd Al-Shaabi - a loose network of Iran-backed paramilitary groups now absorbed into the Iraqi state - in a US drone strike last month.

The fighter in the video is allegedy from the Harakat Hezbollah Al-Nujaba, an Iraqi paramilitary group based in Syria, which recieve training, arms and military advice from Iran, according to Al-Arabiya.

The group, which number between 8,000-10,000 fighters, has fought alongside forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad, assisting the regime in capturing large swatches of Aleppo province, northwest Syria. 

The video, shared to a Twitter account associated with Al-Nujaba, shows a strategic plan to bombard the village of Khan Tuman, in Syria's Aleppo province.  

A surge of internal displacement has seen around 700,000 Syrians flee a regime offensive in nearby Idlib, the UN said on Tuesday, as regime forces and Russia bomb more towns and cities in northwest Syria.

Suspected regime airstrikes on Idlib killed at least 12 civilians on Tuesday, a war monitor said.

Half of those killed in the strikes were minors, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Regime forces also bombed Turkish military points around the Qaminas village in Idlib, causing casualties.

According to UN figures, the Syrian conflict has caused the greatest displacement crisis in the world, with at least 5.5 million people fleeing the country and more than 6 million more displaced inside Syria.


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