“Their passports show they had officially left [Iraq] for Iran, not Syria, and there is a missing link between when they left for Iran and when their bodies arrived in Iraq from Syria,” he said.
“Iraqi al-Qaeda members who are killed in Syria do not come back to us, as they are buried there,” he said.
“But the bodies of those fighting alongside the regime of Assad are returned.”
According to the report by USCENTCOM sponsored website Al-Shorfa, he said groups affiliated with Iranian regime take Iraqi youths to Iran under the guise of religious tourism, where they are trained, given a reasonable amount of money, and then sent to Syria by air.
“We have information indicating there are training camps in Iran close to the Iraqi borders, devoted to graduating fighters to send to Syria,” al-Obaidi said, including fighters belonging to the Abu Fadhel al-Abbas Brigade, which includes Iraqis, Lebanese and Syrians.
The Hizbullah Brigades in Iraq confirmed in a statement to al-Shorfa that fighters are being sent to Syria.