Araz News:  So far some 400 fighters which have been killed by Syrian opposition groups including Islamic State (IS) insurgents have been buried in Iran, the country’s official IRNA news agency reported.

On June 25, five fighters from Fatemiyoun military division, who had recently been killed in Syria were buried in the country’s eastern holy city of Mashhad, according to IRNA.

The Fatemiyoun division is a Shia military unit that is mostly comprised of Afghan and South Azerbaijani fighters, but are often claimed to be Persian Iranians.

According to Trend News Agency, in recent months, Iranian media has reported the killing of several Iranians including high-ranking IRGC members in the Syrian conflict. Some of the slain Iranian fighters had gone to Syria to defend a holy Shiite shrine in the suburbs of Damascus.

Iran is a close ally of the Syrian government and has provided military and financial aid for the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The Islamic Republic views the Syrian regime as its main strategic ally in the region and as part of an “axis of resistance” against Israel.

The Syrian opposition claims that they have been involved in skirmishes with the Iranian military. Iran, however, dismisses this claim, saying that Iran only has advisers in Syria prints solely for the transfer its military experience to the Syrian army.

During the conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011, more than 150,000 people have been killed in the country, over 4.2 million have become internally displaced within Syrian territory, and two million have fled to neighboring countries.

The following is a of those  South Azerbaijanis who were sent to Syria by the government of Iran and killed in Syrian civil war :

Abdol Samad Emam penah from Tabriz, killed Apr 14, 1996

Ali Kanani from Maragheh, killed May 3, 2013

Mahmoud Reza Beizai from Tabriz, killed Jan 12, 2014

Muharram Alipur from Marand, killed Apr 27, 2014

Abbas Abdullahi from Marand, killed Feb 12, 2015

Hamed Jevani  from Tabriz, killed May 13, 2015