PHOTO: Iranian troops south of Aleppo city in Syria

UPDATE 1300 GMT: The head of the elite Qods Force, General Qassem Soleimani, is in Moscow for consultations.

“Three sources with knowledge of [the] trip” confirmed the journey.

“General Soleimani traveled to Moscow last night to discuss issues including the delivery of S-300s [anti-aircraft missile system] and further military cooperation,” one senior Iranian security official said.

A “Moscow-based Western diplomat” said he understood that Soleimani would confer President Vladimir Putin as well as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, but a Kremlin spokesman said a meeting with Soleimani was not on Putin’s schedule.

Soleimani was last in Russia in July to discuss emergency measures to save the Assad regime and the Syrian military, including a defense line from Latakia Province on the Mediterranean through Homs to Damascus. The talks led to Russia’s with thousands of airstrikes from September 30, supporting regime ground offensives which included Iranian forces.

(Cross-posted from Syria Daily)

Amid Iran’s increasing involvement in Syria’s civil war, the outlet of the Revolutionary Guards has proclaimed that 10,000 troops of the Assad regime are preparing for victory in the country’s largest city, Aleppo.

Fars News proclaims from a “military source”, “The Syrian army has deployed 10,000 soldiers in Aleppo front to begin a large-scale military operation to push the Takfiris back from the remaining villages which are under the terrorists’ control.”

The site says that Syrian commanders, “their allies” such as Iran, and Russian military advisors have met to confirm the attacks: “The Large-scale operation to wipe out the militancy in Aleppo province is expected to start in the next 10 days.”

On Monday and Tuesday, an Iranian-led force was defeated in its attempt to retake territory south of Aleppo city from rebels and the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra. Scores of Iranian troops, Hezbollah fighters, and Iraqi and Afghan militia were killed.

Then on Thursday, an attack by pro-Assad forces, accompanied by intense Russian bombing, was repelled north of Aleppo.

See Syria Daily, April 13: Rebels-Nusra Defeat Iranian-Led Force on South Aleppo Front

Fars does not reference to the failed operations and the Iranian losses. Instead, it insists, “The Syrian Army, backed by Hezbollah and the [pro-Assad militia] National Defense Forces cut off another key supply route of the terrorists in the Southern parts of Aleppo province.” And it writes — incorrectly — of Thursday’s attacks, “Syrian Army forces backed by popular forces managed to liberate the strategic region of al-Mallah farms from the control of the Al-Nusra Front terrorists in Northwestern suburbs of Aleppo.”

See Syria Daily, April 15: Rebels and Nusra Foil Regime-Russian Attack North of Aleppo

After coordinating last autumn’s intervention with Russia, Iran put in more Revolutionary Guards commanders and troops and foreign militia for ground offensives in northwest Syria, supported by thousands of Russian airstrikes. The offensives made limited gains, but rebels and Jabhat al-Nusra have regained territory this month.

The Iranian military announced last week that units of the Army, including special forces, have been deployed for the first time in Syria.

Iranian media have acknowledged the deaths of 230 Iranian commanders and soldiers since October 7. However, they have not referred to the heavy losses sustained this week, noting only six casualties, three of them from special forces.