Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has praised the Afghan fighters, called the Fatemiyoun Brigade, who fought Daesh in Syria, and said the Afghan fighters showed more resistance on the battlefields than other fighters.

Khamenei met some families of fallen Fatemiyoun fighters on Thursday, March 28, where he said the Afghan fighters were very motivated. 

“The Afghan fighters, as I have been informed, have shown more resistance and endurance than others on the battlefields. As much as the resistance be more in the way of Allah, the reward will be more. Allah may grant them high martyrdom grades,” he said. 

Khamenei said the Afghan youths who participated in Syria war have been motivated and devoted people and that he had close relations with the Afghan youths over the past few decades. 

“They mostly have been young, devoted and motivated. I had close communications with our Afghan brothers before the revolution and have been familiar with their motivations and morale,” he added. 

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), meanwhile, said that using Afghan refugees as soldiers and sending them to battlefields in Syria is in contravention of the international laws. 

MoFA spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi said that a large number of Afghan refugees have been recruited as soldiers for Syria war and that they haverepeatedly have asked Iranian government to treat with the Afghan refugees as refugees. 

“Unfortunately, this issue has continued and we hope the Islamic Republic of Iran as a friend and neighbor country and as a responsible state will pay a thorough attention in this regard,” said Ahmadi. 

Malalai Shinwari, an advisor to President Ashraf Ghani, said the Iranian government “misuses” Afghan refugees for their own benefits.

“They misuse from Afghans economic problems for their own interests,” Shinwari said. 

Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said Iran’s move to send Afghan refugees to Syrian war is a serious human rights violation. 

“Misusing from the people’s poverty is obviously a human rights violation,” the AIHRC chairperson Sima Samar said. 

Reports indicate that dozens of Afghans have been killed in battle in Syria and their bodies were buried in Iran.