Inside an Iranian-Linked Militia Base in Aleppo Countryside

Back in the summer, while driving one afternoon on a countryside route not too far from my home as part of a trip to the waterfalls of Handarat and the Handarat Palestinian refugee camp in Aleppo province (about which I will post subsequently), I stumbled upon an abandoned villa property in Sunni-populated areas that had Shia graffiti on its exterior wall. Specifically, I remember finding this place south of the Aleppo countryside village of Tell Jabin.

Curious, I took a look inside and realised that the property had been used by a militia that had likely been part of the Iranian and Hezbollah-backed networks in Syria: perhaps Syrian Shia fighters who had been part of the ‘Local Defence Forces’, or perhaps a villa used by Hezbollah personnel from Lebanon.

The photos below, taken for purposes of historical documentation, show the outside and inside of the base. No administrative documents were left inside the base, but I did find some pro-‘resistance’ propaganda literature. The photos themselves are a useful illustration of some of the ideological obsessions of the ‘axis of resistance.’