Watchdog

Iran's official IRNA news agency reports that a funeral ceremony has been held in the city of Qom for 10 soldiers who were killed while fighting in Syria.

The November 10 report said the families and relatives of the deceased soldiers, as well as authorities and local citizens, attended the funeral about 130 kilometers south of Tehran.

It called the soldiers "defenders of the shrine," but did not identify them or provide additional details about how they died.

In August, Iran said the families of at least 400 soldiers killed while fighting as members of Iranian brigades in Syria were referred for financial support.

Iran provides military and political backing to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying it is defending Shi'ite shrines.

Based on reporting by AP and IRNA

A missing man whose public complaint about corrupt officials in his tiny village in Chechnya brought him fame across Russia and local condemnation has fled the region after fearing for his life.

Russian rights defender Svetlana Gannushkina wrote on Facebook on November 10 that Ramazan Dzhalaldinov had told her that he had to escape from his village to neighboring Daghestan on November 2-3 after Chechnya's Deputy Interior Minister Apti Alaudinov personally threatened to kill him and his wife unless he stopped his complaints.

According to Gannushkina, Dzhalaldinov told her that police in his village took away his and his son's passports and his mobile phone.

Dzhalaldinov also claimed Alaudinov and local police were doing everything to prevent his meeting with Chechnya's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, with whom Dzhalaldinov wants to discuss his village's problems.

Dzhalaldinov's relatives reported his disappearance on November 7.

It's the second time Dzhalaldinov has disappeared since his April video complaint alleging corruption among local authorities.

Chechnya's officials, including Kadyrov, denied the complaint, staging a televised public meeting of Dzhalaldinov's fellow villagers to deny the allegations.

Dzhalaldinov and his family fled to Daghestan then and returned a month later. Dzhalaldinov then apologized in a video that was posted to Kadyrov's own Instagram account.