But there you go. Assad’s soldiers hold the line where Iraq’s forces initially disintegrated. Assad’s enemies are the same Nusra and al-Qa’ida fighters whom Blair’s bombing of Damascus would have helped – and who now threaten Iraq’s existence. Will the Iranians send their soldiers to defend the Shia of Iraq? A good question to ponder on a military flight from Aleppo to Damascus, in an iron seat on an old Antonov-26 among 60 Syrian soldiers, many of them wounded, the bodies of two 25-year-old conscripts in the cargo compartment, shot by snipers the previous night. A flicker of machine-gun fire comes from the darkness below, and by the time we land in Damascus, five of the “Syrians” opposite us shout a Shia prayer – in Persian. They tell us they are Afghans, Shia from the Hazara people. They are in Syrian uniform, holding rifles, an Iranian beside them. They were returning to Tehran next day. So now the Afghan Shia fight on Assad’s side – and Afghan Sunnis fight the rebels
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 12:44:59 +0000
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