War is Boring reported an interesting event in Syria.  An Iranian soldier was killed there.  That in of itself isn’t strange.  Iran has been sending Quds force to Syria to fight the rebels for years.  What is unique is this Iranian soldier Sgt. Hossein Tabesteh, was from the Iranian 10th Air Defense Group, part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps equipped with the best air defense systems Iran has.

So Iran is seriously short of Quds commandos to send to Syria or is helping the Syrians with air defense.   That raises even more questions during a coincidental situation with the current air strikes going on in Syria.  The rebels have no operating aircraft even though they captured a Syrian airfield.  The US and its “coalition” does.  The next logical question would be under what conditions would Syria engage “coalition” aircraft and what would be the ramifications for the region if it did?  Efforts to knock down US aircraft would facilitate the US directly supporting rebel forces against Assad.  The downside would be the impact on the shaky relationship the US and Iran have in Iraq.

I described this sort of increased instability in my essay, “American Combat Troops inevitable return to Iraq Part II”.