Iran to deploy 15,000 troops to help Syria’s Assad

Israeli news outlet Haaretz is reporting that Iran is aiding in Syria’s crackdown on opposition forces.The Al Arabiya news channel also reported  that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has deployed 15,000 armed troops to Syria recently in order to help Syrian President Bashar Assad in his fight against opposition forces. “(A) Prominent Syrian lawmaker says the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force has recently arrived in the country to help manage Assad’s regime brutal suppression of a 11-month-long popular unrest,” reports Haaretz. The official who made the claim, Kassam Salimani, is a top member of the National Syrian Council. Salimani claims that a commander of Iran’s Quds Force special forces unit arrived in Syria recently to help direct army maneuvers against rebel fighters.