Iran’s Guards Pull Officers From Syria After Israeli Strikes

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on allied Shi’ite militia to preserve their sway there, five sources familiar with the matter said.

The Guards have suffered one of their most bruising spells in Syria since arriving a decade ago to aid President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war. Since December, Israeli strikes have killed more than half a dozen of their members, among them one of the Guards’ top intelligence generals.

As hardliners in Tehran demand retaliation, Iran’s decision to pull out senior officers is driven partly by its aversion to being sucked directly into a conflict bubbling across the Middle East, three of the sources told Reuters.

While the sources said Iran has no intention of quitting Syria – a key part of Tehran’s sphere of influence – the rethink underscores how the consequences of the war ignited by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel are unfolding in the region.

Iran, a backer of Hamas, has sought to stay out of the conflict itself even as it supports groups that have entered the fray from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria – the so-called “Axis of Resistance” that is hostile to Israeli and U.S. interests.

One of the sources – a senior regional security official briefed by Tehran – said senior Iranian commanders had left Syria along with dozens of mid-ranking officers, describing it as a downsizing of their presence.

The source did not say how many Iranians had left and Reuters was unable independently to determine that.

The news agency could not reach the Guards for comment and the Syrian Information Ministry did not respond.

Iran has sent thousands of fighters to Syria during the Syrian war. While these have included members of the Guards, officially serving in the role of advisers, the bulk have been Shi’ite militiamen from all over the region.

Three of the sources said the Guards would manage Syrian operations remotely, with help from ally Hezbollah. The Lebanese group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iranian forces came to Syria at Assad’s invitation, helping him to beat back rebels who had seized control of swathes of the country in the conflict that began in 2011.

Years after Assad and his allies won back most of Syria, Iran-backed groups still operate across large areas.

Their presence has cemented a zone of Iranian influence stretching through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to the Mediterranean, helping to counterbalance Tehran’s regional adversaries, including Israel.

Russia has also supported Assad, deploying its air force to Syria in 2015, and any weakening of Iran’s role there could play to its advantage. “Moscow and Tehran are working more closely together but their relationship may be strained if they compete openly in Syria,” said Gregory Brew, an analyst with Eurasia group, a political risk consultancy.

Russia said this month it expected President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi to sign a new treaty soon, amid strengthening political, trade, and military ties between the two nations.