Dubai, Reuters, 4 April 2016 – Iran has sent commandos to Syria as advisers, a military official said on Monday, suggesting it is using its army as well as paramilitary forces to help Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the country’s civil war.

Tehran is Assad’s main regional ally and has provided military and economic support to his fight against rebel groups and Islamic State militants.

“We are sending commandos from army’s Brigade 65 and other units to Syria as advisers,” General Ali Arasteh, deputy chief liaison of the army’s ground force, was quoted as saying by the Quds force news agency Tasnim.

Arasteh said last month that Iran at some point might decide to use commandos and snipers from its regular armed forces as military advisers in Iraq and Syria.

To date, most Iranians involved in Syria’s war have been from the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Iran is believed to have sent hundreds of them as military advisers.

An increasing death toll among Iranian fighters since October last year indicates Tehran’s forces are taking a more active role in the conflict, according to the Reuters.