Iran denies sending Afghan refugees to fight in Syria

Iran has dismissed claims in US media that it is recruiting Afghan refugees to fight in Syria's civil war.

An article published in the Wall Street Journal on 15 May wrote that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been "recruiting thousands of Afghan refugees to fight in Syria".

The recruits were promised a salary of US$500 a month and offered Iranian residency among other incentives to go and fight for Syria's government, wrote the newspaper.

The Journal quoted a Western official as saying that by recruiting Afghans, Iran aimed to reduce casualties among the Iranian Revolutionary Guards personnel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia.

Afghan lawmakers have condemned the alleged exploitation of their refugees, calling for an investigation by their embassy in Iran. 

On 18 May Fazel Hadi Mosleymyar, the Afghan speaker of parliament said: "This is really a sad event. Afghanistan's government has to find a solution. They take advantage of the [refugees'] poverty and send them to Syria to die."

However, the allegations have been rejected by the Iranian officials.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham said in a statement reported in the Iranian press "The claim of the US paper is completely unfounded and is aimed at damaging Iran's reputation in Afghanistan," She further added, "This is an insult to the people of Afghanistan and the Wall Street Journal needs to apologise to them" 

One of the sources for the WSJ story, Mohaghegh Kabuli, a religious leader for the Afghan community in the Iranian holy city of Qom, has also denied the story. 

"The news published by BBC…citing Western newspapers saying that the office manager of Ayatollah Kabuli confirmed Afghan refugees are dispatched to Syria by the Revolutionary Guards, I deny," read a statement by his office.

A key ally of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against rebels since 2011's anti-government protests turned to a civil war, Iran provides Damascus with military and financial support.

While Iran denies having any official military presence on Syrian battlefields, Iranian media from time to time report the deaths of Iranian volunteer fighters there.

There are almost one million Afghan refugees in Iran registered with a UN refugee agency.