Israel: 55 Iranians killed in Syria's war
Around 55 Iranian military personnel have been killed in Syria's civil war, Israeli intelligence believes, and a think-tank close to Israel's spy services said the toll is undermining support among Iranians for Iran's actions in Syria.
While formally neutral on the four-year-old insurgency in the next-door Arab state, Israel has sought to raise alarm abroad about support given to Syrian President Bashar Assad by Iran and Hezbollah. With Russian forces also now weighing in on Assad's side, some Israeli media have carried unsourced reports presenting the de-facto axis between Moscow, Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian army as plagued by poor coordination and battlefield losses. Speaking to Reuters, a senior Israeli military officer cited Israeli intelligence findings that "55-plus" Iranian personnel had been killed in clashes with Syrian rebels, in addition to a Hezbollah death toll he put at between 1,000 and 2,000.
