Iran is one of the main international backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has sent military advisers and thousands of “volunteers” to fight IS on the ground in Syria and Iraq. He congratulated Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and its foreign arm the Quds Force for a “great victory” but insisted that the “main work was accomplished by the people and armies of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon”. “We helped them in accordance with our religious and Islamic duties,” he said. In a message released by the Revolutionary Guards, Soleimani congratulated supreme leader Khamenei on this “decisive victory” over IS. Neither the Syrian nor Iraqi governments have so far declared definitive victory over the group.

Source: The Guardian November 21, 2017 12:22 UTC