The deputy head of Iran's Quds force has let slip in an interview that
Iranian troops are operating in Syria in support of President Bashar
al-Assad's regime.

Iran's long-suspected involvement in the
repression of Syrian protestors was confirmed when, speaking with the
country's semi-official Isna news agency, Ismail Gha'ani said: "If the
Islamic Republic was not present in Syria, the massacre of people would
have happened on a much larger scale."

The unguarded comments were later removed from Isna's website.

The
West has long accused Iran of providing military and technical support
to Assad to quell the 15-month-old uprising in Syria. The unintentional
disclosure by Gha'ani seems to have proven those suspicions to be
correct, despite Iran's denials to the contrary.