Syrian Observatory activists have monitored the arrival of the bodies of 25 Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries killed in the raging battles in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The bodies were transported into Syria on Wednesday, via Hoor Kilis military border in northern Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) informs.
In the past few hours, Syrian Observatory activists documented the death of 29 Syrian fighters in Nagorno-Karabakh battles, nearly 15 of whom have been transported to Syria. Accordingly, the total death toll among the Turkish-backed factions since the Turkish government sent them to the frontlines in late September has risen to at least 217. The bodies of 163 fighters have been transferred to Syria, while the rest remain in Azerbaijan.
SOHR sources reported earlier this morning the arrival of a new batch of 300 fighters in Azerbaijan in the recent days. However, Turkey iсstruggling to recruit more fighters and send them to Nagorno-Karabakh, as a large part of the fighters refuse to fight alongside Azerbaijani forces due to the “sectarian” factor, in addition to the heavy human losses among the batches which were sent to fight in Azerbaijan.
It is worth noting that some of fighters sent to Azerbaijan were not even aware that the Azerbaijani forces are of the Shiite community, and they returned to Syria just after they leant about it, not to mention the difficult conditions of the fighters there.
As a new batch of fighters arrived in Azerbaijan, the total number of Syrian fighters thrown into Nagorno-Karabakh battles rose to at least 2,350, of whom 320 fighters returned to Syria after they had given up and forgone their payments.
