[VOA] WASHINGTON -- Iran is increasingly using Syrian battlefields as a proving ground for fresh military officers in training, according to Iranian media reports and Syrian opposition figures.Tehran-based Imam Hossein University, a school affiliated with The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said it recently deployed military leadership students to fight in Syria as part of an educational program designed for future officers, according to state-run media.
Tehran says its forces are in Syria to protect the Zeinab Shrine in Damascus, a Shi'ite holy site. But since 2011, Iran has been a major backer of the Syrian regime in its war with rebel groups across the country, at first sending advisers, then forces from the IRGC expanding far beyond the shrine area.
Morteza Saffari, a senior IRGC commander who heads "the brass hat division" at Imam Hossein University, said at least 100 students from the school have been dispatched to Syria for training in combat situations.
"Some of the students sent for two-month training sessions got martyred (killed), many were injured and some have been deployed in Syria for a longer period," he told Iran's Danshjoo news agency in a recent interview.