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The Washington Post presented new evidence that Syrian mercenaries are fighting against Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) on Azerbaijan’s side in an article published on Wednesday.

“Families gathered around a refrigerated truck at a Syrian-Turkish border post, waiting earlier this month for the drivers to dispense their awful cargo: the bodies of 52 Syrian men, killed in a war 600 miles away,” the media outlet said.

The dead were mercenaries, recruited by Turkish-backed militias in Syria to fight on behalf of Azerbaijan against Armenia, relatives said

“In recent months, Turkey has sought to project its military might across much of its neighborhood with new vigor. Turkey’s enthusiastic backing of the Azerbaijani war effort — and provision of military assistance, including armed drones — has emboldened Azerbaijan, situating Turkey at the center of the conflict and giving Ankara standing, it hopes, to weigh in on any peace settlement,” The Washington Post stressed.

The media outlet also shared a photo of Mahmoud Najjar, a 38-year-old Syrian fighter killed in Karabakh fighting.

His cousin, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering the mercenaries’ recruiters in Syria, said that Najjar, who once worked in a textile factory in Aleppo, had more recently been employed as a security guard for the local court in Marea, in northern Syria.

With two children and struggling to make ends meet, he noticed when other young Syrian men, recruited by Turkey to fight in Libya, came home flush with cash. When Najjar’s 18-year-old nephew offered him the opportunity to fight in Azerbaijan for $2,000 a month, he jumped at the chance, his cousin said.

“Money is the only reason,” the cousin said. “Who wants to go to Azerbaijan? Who even knows where Azerbaijan is?”

They flew out of southern Turkey, the cousin said. On their first day in Azerbaijan, they were given uniforms with light green shades of camouflage.

The next day, they were sent to the front. “The area was heavily fortified by Armenians,” the cousin said. The Syrian mercenaries were largely on their own in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by languages, history and grievances they did not understand. They were accompanied by three Azerbaijani guides.

They spent nine hours walking up a mountain, the cousin said. Najjar was sent to clear a building but was killed by a sniper’s bullet that tore off the top of his head, according to the cousin, who provided a picture of Najjar’s body to The Washington Post on the condition that it not be published. Najjar’s nephew was killed the same day.

The bodies sat overnight where they fell because it was too dangerous to retrieve them.