MOSCOW. Dec 19 (Interfax) - Russia has transported 4,000 Iranian fighters out of Syria at the request of the Iranian authorities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"In the past, our Iranian friends asked us to help them transport their units on the Syrian territory, now they asked us to transport them out of there. We have transported 4,000 Iranian fighters from the Hmeimim airbase to Tehran," Putin said at his press conference on Thursday.
"Some of the so-called pro-Iranian units left for Lebanon without fighting, and some went to Iraq," he said.