September 01, 2017
Iran’s top military officer says Iranian troops need to fight in a war to further improve their combat skills.
This quite stunning assertion was reported last week by the Tasnim news agency and hasn’t been denied by the military.
Maj. Gen. Hossain Baqeri, the chief of the Joint Staff of the armed forces, said the programs confining Iran’s military forces to training and wargames are not sufficient to prepare the soldiers, and he called for “direct engagement” in practical fields, like on the frontier or international battlefields where Iran is extending advisory services.
In other words, he appeared to be proposing the deployment of Iranian combat units to Syria.
Mere reliance on military training and holding exercises does not satisfy the needs of the armed forces, Tasnim reported Baqeri as saying at a military ceremony in Tehran Saturday.
“There should be direct engagement on the battlefield and a face-off with the enemy to prepare the forces,” he said.
Iranian military advisors are engaged with militias in Iraq and Syria in their battles against terrorists.
