Iran sent weapons to Syria amid earthquake aid
The Islamic Republic of Iran, taking advantage of aid packages sent after the earthquake, transferred weapons to Syria with the aim of attacking US troops, according to The Washington Post based on US intelligence and an Israeli military official. The material sent included small arms, ammunition and drones.
This information has come to light after Pentagon documents - accessed by the US newspaper - were leaked and circulated on the instant messaging network Discord. It also reinforces an earlier Reuters investigation based on Syrian, Iranian, Israeli and Western sources that Tehran used humanitarian aid flights in the aftermath of the earthquake to transfer weapons to Syria. According to the sources consulted by the news agency, this material would be used to "armour Iran's defences against Israel in Syria". The Iranian authorities denied the accusations, stating that the information was "not true".
In addition to reports in The Washington Post, CNN also quotes intelligence and defence sources as suggesting that members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), and especially the Quds Force, used convoys from Iraq to covertly transport the weapons and ammunition to Syria.
People consulted by the newspaper confirm this information and claim that the IRGC's elite military wing was involved in these operations. They also underline that the strategy of "using humanitarian aid destined for Iraq and Syria to deliver materials to IRGC-affiliated groups" is commonplace.
The leaked documents reveal that in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, Iran and its affiliated groups moved quickly "to exploit the chaos". Just one day after the brutal earthquake, a group of Iraq-based military officials "allegedly orchestrated the transfer of rifles, ammunition and 30 unmanned aerial vehicles concealed in aid shipments for future attacks on US forces in Syria," according to the leaks. There are approximately 900 US troops in Syria operating in coordination with local forces, particularly Kurdish militias, to prevent the resurgence of Daesh. The threat these troops face from pro-Iranian groups is "persistent", according to US officials.
Iraq's role
In the days following the earthquake, one Quds Force officer ordered a group of Iraqi soldiers to place weapons inside humanitarian aid, while another compiled a list of "hundreds" of vehicles and other objects that entered Syria from Iraq in the aftermath of the disaster.
The reports also refer to the involvement of the Popular Mobilisation Forces of Iraq, a collection of mostly Shi'ite militias associated with Iran. However, a coalition spokesman, Moayad Al Saadi, has denied the reports, saying that the aid packages were authorised by the Iraqi government and reached the Syrian population in need.
The Iraqi government itself, led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, has commented on the matter. Al-Sudani took office last October after the Coordination Framework, a political alliance that brings together Shiite parties close to Iran, proposed him as a candidate against the cleric Muqtaba al-Sadr, also a Shiite but critical of Tehran's influence in the country. Al-Sadr's formation, the Sadrist Movement, was the most voted party in the last elections in October 2021.
A senior official in Baghdad's presidential office dismissed the US documents as "fake", arguing that no excuse is needed for supplying weapons to pro-Iranian groups in Syria. "The borders are open," the senior official reminded The Washington Post. "Why wait for an aid convoy as a pretext?" he added.
