Iran-backed factions revive weapon routes to Iraq: SOHR

Shafaq News/ Iran-backed factions stationed in Iraq’s Al-Qaim are coordinating with Syrian smugglers to move weapons into Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Saturday.

The factions had relocated from Syria in December, following the ousting of the former Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and are now based on the Iraqi side of the border, where Iraqi army units are “nominally” deployed but the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) maintain real control, according to SOHR.

The observatory accused the groups of trying to revive arms routes extending to Lebanon by recruiting smugglers and former militants with offers of cash and drugs. They are reportedly taking advantage of the Syrian government's “weak enforcement” in the border region and its “failure” to curb the influence of traffickers and armed groups, particularly members of the 47th Regiment, affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

“Syrian authorities have made limited efforts to reconcile with these fighters,” the Observatory explained, with most regrouping under tribal protection to shield themselves from government pursuit.

Around 70 former fighters received $200 each ahead of Eid al-Fitr, it reported, with the money allegedly coming from Iraq and distributed in the town of Al-Sukkariyah, in Syria’s Quneitra countryside, at the home of a close associate of 47th Regiment commander Youssef Al-Hamdan, also known as Abu Issa Al-Mashhadani.