Tehran: An Iranian general Revolutionary Guards was killed in Syria on Thursday during fighting between Syrian government forces and jihadists, the Iranian news agency reported.
Tehran has been a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the civil war that broke out in 2011, providing military advisers.
The worst fighting in years broke out in northern Syria this week between jihadists and the army.
One of Iran’s senior advisers in Aleppo, General Kiomarus Pourhashemi, was killed in the attack. Takfiri terrorist mercenary,” reported Tasnim news agency.
In Shia-majority Iran, the term ‘takfiri’ usually refers to jihadists or adherents of radical Sunni Islam.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch, launched a surprise attack on the army in Aleppo province on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Britain-based War Monitor said more than 140 fighters had been killed in the fighting.
The Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of a “military adviser in Iraq and Syria,” identifying him as a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the flare-up in Syria was part of the US and Israel’s “plan to destabilize the region’s stability and security”.
Iran General Killed in Syria Clash: Media
Smoke rises amid fighting between opposition groups and Syrian government troops in Dadikh, Syria (Image credit: AP)