Special to WorldTribune.com

Iran is said to be recruiting refugees from Afghanistan to replenish the heavily-depleted forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Afghans recruited as mercenaries and relatives of some fighters who were killed in Syria say the recruitment effort by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets desperate, unemployed Shi’ite Hazara refugees.

“In terms of how they are recruited, deployed, and utilized in Syria, many Afghan Shi’ite fighters have suffered the fate of being used as cannon fodder,” said Phillip Smyth, an expert on Shi’ite militant groups, who estimates there are 2,000 to 3,500 Afghans currently fighting in Syria.

“Some are coerced to fight, others promised residency papers for their family, and a small salary. It demonstrates Iran’s exploitation of Afghan Shi’ite refugees.”

The Iranian embassy in Kabul called allegations that the IRGC is enlisting Afghan refugees “completely baseless.”

Assad admitted last month that a series of battlefield losses, defections and desertions have left Syria’s forces with a serious manpower shortage.

The wife of an Afghan fighter named Haider recently told AFP that he was offered a monthly salary of $700 and the promise of an Iranian residency permit.

“I begged him: ‘Don’t go, don’t kill yourself for money,’ ” said Haider’s wife, Jehantab. A few days after he left, however, an Iranian official informed his relatives that Haider had been killed in battle.

A 27-year-old Afghan named Mohammed told AFP he joined the fight in Syria to protect the golden-domed Sayyeda Zainab, a prominent Shi’ite shrine located in a Damascus suburb. Mohammad said he was part of the all-Afghan Fatemiyoun brigade, named after the founder of Islam Mohammed’s daughter Fatima, and fought alongside Iran terror proxy Hizbullah.

“Iran has no combat troops in Syria but the command is in their control,” Mohammed told AFP in Kabul.

  Hizbullah, Iran recruiting Afghan refugees for often fatal missions to bolster Assad’s Syria, IRGC, Shi’ite refugees, WorldTribune.com