Putin says Russia evacuated 4,000 'Iranian fighters' from Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said his country helped evacuate 4,000 "Iranian fighters" from Syria, where the 61-year Baath Party regime ended after anti-regime groups took control of the capital Damascus earlier this month.

"If earlier, for example, our Iranian friends asked us to help them transfer their units to Syrian territory, now they asked us to withdraw them from there. We took 4,000 Iranian fighters to Tehran. From the Khmeimim base," Putin said during his annual news conference and call-in show in Moscow.

The president said approximately 30,000 people defended Aleppo when 350 forces from anti-regime groups approached the city late last month. "Government troops, and along with them the so-called pro-Iranian units, retreated without a fight, blew up their positions and left," he said.

Commenting on whether Russia will leave its bases in Syria, Putin said he does not know that yet. "We must decide for ourselves how our relations will develop with those political forces that now control and will control the situation in this country in the future. Our interests must coincide," he said.

He also offered the use of Moscow's bases in Khmeimim and Tartus for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Putin also said he has not spoken to ousted Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad since he fled and was granted asylum in Russia.