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ByMehmetGuzeland Derek Gatopoulos The Associated Press DIKILI, TURKEY A contro- versial European Union plan to curb migration and smash smuggling rings in Turkey began Monday as 202 migrants from two Greek islands were piled onto boats and shipped back to Turkey. Under heavy security, authorities on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios deported people from 11 nations — the first in a plan that has drawn strong criticism from hu- man rights advocates but is seen by some European nations as the only way to resolve the continent's mi- gration crisis. The first vessel from Les- bos was escorted into the Turkish port of Dikili by the Turkish coast guard as a helicopter hovered over- head. The migrants were taken to red-and-white tents for registration and health checks. About a dozen people stood at the port holding a banner that read "Wel- come refugees. Turkey is your home." That sentiment came in sharp contrast to protests over the weekend by locals who feared that Dikili would turn into a warehouse for refugees. A second vessel motored in from Lesbos and a third from the nearby island of Chios later Monday. Greek authorities said a total of 191 men and 11 women were sent back. Those included 130 people from Pakistan, 42 from Af- ghanistan, 10 from Iran, five from Congo, four from Sri Lanka, three from Ban- gladesh, three from India, one each from Iraq, Soma- lia and Ivory Coast, and two Syrians who had asked to be sent back. Those who arrived from Lesbos were sent to "recep- tion and removal center" in the northwestern Kirklareli province on the Black Sea, according to Turkey's state- run Anadolu Agency. It said the Syrians would be placed in refugee camps and other migrants would be de- ported. In an address to police officers in Ankara, Turk- ish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged them to show "compassion'" to the returning migrants and said Syrian refugees from camps in Turkey would be sent to Europe. In the other half of the plan, 16 Syrian refugees from Turkey flew into the central German city of Han- nover on Monday to be re- settled and 16 more were ex- pected on a flight later in the day. Turkey and the European Union reached a deal last month that says migrants who reach Greece illegally from Turkey after March 20 will be returned to Tur- key unless they qualify for asylum. For every Syrian turned back, a Syrian ref- ugee is to be resettled from Turkey to the EU. The agreement aims to deter people from making the short but dangerous journey with smugglers to Greek islands from the Turkish coast. More than 52,000 mi- grants and refugees are stranded in Greece follow- ing the border closures of European nations further north, but only those who arrived after March 20 — about 4,000 so far — are being detained for depor- tation. Monday was a sym- bolic benchmark in the agreement that has been plagued by concerns over human rights and the ade- quacy of preparations made in Greece and Turkey. The numbers transferred, how- ever, were smaller than ini- tially forecast. And while the number of new arrivals in Greece has dropped since March 20, potential asylum-seekers are still taking smuggling boats across the Aegean Sea, including 339 people who authorities say landed from Sunday morning to Monday morning. Giorgos Kyritsis, a spokesman for a Greek gov- ernment refugee crisis com- mittee, said 136 migrants were deported from Lesbos and 66 from Chios, where riot police clashed with res- idents hours earlier during a protest against the expul- sions. "This is the first day of a very difficult time for refu- gee rights. Despite the seri- ous legal gaps and lack of adequate protection in Tur- key, the EU is forging ahead with a dangerous deal," Giorgos Kosmopoulos, head of Amnesty International in Greece, told The Associated Press from Lesbos. The deportations started with migrants who did not apply for asylum or had their applications declared inadmissible. SOUTHERN EUROPE EU begins shipping migrants in Greece back to Turkey EMRETAZEGUL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A Turkish police officer escorts a migrant a er a vessel transporting migrants from Greek island of Lesbos docked in Dikili port, Turkey, on Monday. By Deb Riechmann The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Obama administration is making the case that Iran is draw- ing down its elite fighting force from Syria in an effort to allay fears that Tehran is using its powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria to strengthen its in- fluence across the Middle East. Yet the Iranian gov- ernment said Monday it has dispatched commandos to the war and it is still tak- ing high-ranking casualties. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is deeply in- volved in trying to broker a political solution to end the five-year-old civil war between President Bashar Assad and rebels, told Con- gress in late February that Iran was recalling its IRGC forces from Syria. "On Iran, let me just in- form everybody here that the IRGC has actually pulled its troops back from Syria," Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Commit- tee. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "pulled a significant num- ber of troops out. Their presence is actually reduced in Syria." Other administration of- ficials have backed Kerry's assertion. U.S. officials, who were not authorized to publicly discuss Iran's role in Syria and spoke only on condition of anonymity, said Tehran's drawdown of IRGC forces will compel Assad to rely more on his own forces, which lack the training and intelligence capabilities of the IRGC. But experts say that even if the IRGC has trimmed forces, the pro-Iranian Shi- ite militias Tehran helped create are still fighting. Iran stepped up its fighting in Syria in October 2015, send- ing mainly IRGC officers to direct Shiite foot soldiers from other nations, includ- ing Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Iran has done so much to strengthen the Assad regime — stabilize the Assad regime — through the creation of these mili- tia groups," said Scott Mod- ell, a former CIA officer who has conducted opera- tions throughout the Mid- dle East. "They don't want to just build up their militia groups and leave. This is their way of creating a last- ing footprint" across the region, he said. "This isn't Russia where they make sure to shore up Assad and then they downsize." A senior congressional staffer said what the U.S. is seeing from the Iranians is not different from what it is seeing from the Russians — a withdrawal of some num- ber of forces and resources that does not significantly change the battlefield. The staffer spoke only on condi- tion of anonymity. Russia began support- ing Assad with airstrikes on Sept. 30, helping his military reverse the tide of war and make some key advances. President Vladi- mir Putin recently ordered a pullout of some Russian warplanes from Syria, but said that strikes against the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front will continue. Those groups have been excluded from a Russian- and U.S.- brokered cease-fire that began on Feb. 27 and has largely held. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC's aero- space division, told report- ers on March 9 that Iran is still deploying troops to Syria. On Monday, Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Gen. Ali Arasteh, deputy chief li- aison of the Iranian Ar- my's Ground Force, as saying that the army has dispatched a number of commandos to Syria. Iran was training, ad- vising and assisting Syr- ian forces through Septem- ber of last year, but stepped up its activity a month later after Russia began its air campaign. It's unclear ex- actly how many Iranians are fighting in Syria, but Iranian deaths rose signifi- cantly in mid-October with reports that 1,500 more Ira- nian troops had been de- ployed to Syria, according to a new report by the Crit- ical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Insti- tute, a conservative-leaning policy institute in Washing- ton. Reports surfaced last year that Iranian forces were pulling out of Syria. But "it is more likely that the IRGC was rotating and repositioning its units, how- ever, for casualties began to pick up again in early De- cember," said Frederick Ka- gan who wrote the report with Paul Bucala. According to the report, Iranian media and other sources reported at least 187 Iranian casualties between October 2015 and Feb. 26. MIDDLE EAST US says Iran forces are pulling back in Syria; others say this isn't so THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ruins are seen at al-Qaryatain city in the central city of Homs, Syria, on Monday. Construction Burrows Construction Remodel, New Additions, Siding Repair and Replacement, Water and Dryrot New Construction Foundation to Finish Ph:(530) 515-9779 Residential•Commerical PATIOS•DECKS REFRENCES Lic#824770 Roofing Call for Estimates! Residential, Commercial & Mobiles www.harbertroofing.com HARBERT ROOFING, INC. 530-223-3251 Lic# 696974 Time To Roof? Blinds Need Blinds? 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