AFP - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday sung the praise of slain Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, who played a key role in saving his regime in the nearly nine-year-old Syrian conflict.

The Syrian people "will not forget that he stuck by the side of the Syrian Arab army", Assad said in a letter of condolences sent to Iran''s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"The memory of the martyr Soleimani will remain immortal in the conscience of the Syrian people," said Assad.