TEHRAN: More than 2,000 Afghans deployed by Iran have been killed fightingin Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad´s regime, an official inthe volunteer force told Iranian media.

The Fatemiyoun Brigade of Afghan “volunteer” recruits has been fighting inSyria for five years, said Zohair Mojahed, a cultural official in thebrigade.

“This brigade has given more than 2,000 martyrs and 8,000 wounded forIslam,” he said in an interview with the reformist Shargh newspaperpublished Saturday.

Iran rarely provides figures on the numbers fighting and killed in itsoperations in Syria and Iraq.

The last toll was provided by the veterans organisation in March, whichsaid 2,100 volunteers had died without specifying how many were foreignrecruits.

Iran denies sending professional troops to fight in the region, saying ithas only provided military advisors and organised brigades made up ofvolunteers from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Fatemiyoun is reportedly the biggest military unit deployed by Iran inIraq and Syria, made up of recruits from Afghanistan.

Iran has backed Afghan forces in the past against the Taliban in their owncountry, as well as mobilising them against Saddam Hussein´s forces in theIran-Iraq war of 1980-88.

Some 3,000 Afghans died fighting Iraq in the 1980s, Mojahed said.

Tehran offers Iranian citizenship to the families of those foreign fighters”martyred” in the conflicts of Syria and Iraq.

Iranian media has reported on the funerals of volunteer “martyrs” and airedtelevision features about their presence in Syria.