A general of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been killed while on a ‘mission’ in Syria. Iran’s state media reported the information on Tuesday.
A member of the IRGC’s ground forces, General Abolfazl Alizani, was a military adviser to the Syria mission, Arab News reported, citing the state broadcaster. He was martyred on Sunday.
Alizani was described on state television as a ‘protector of the sanctuary’. The term is mainly used for those working for Iran in Syria or Iraq. However, they did not give any details of how he was killed in the attack.
Iran says it has deployed its forces in Syria only as advisers at the invitation of Damascus.
In early August, Tehran and other Iranian cities held funerals for five IRGC members killed in Syria several years ago. Their bodies were later recovered and identified through DNA testing, Iranian media reported.
In March, the Guards said two of its officers were killed in an Israeli strike in Syria. They warned that Israel would ‘pay for the crime.’
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria in recent years. They have targeted government positions as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
Israel, however, rarely comments on individual attacks. But they have admitted hundreds of strikes have been carried out in Syria since 2011.
The Israeli military has resisted their arch-enemy Iran from setting foot on its doorstep.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, meanwhile, is the ideological wing of Iran’s military and is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States.
(23 Aug)