Iranian General killed in Syria: officials
Shares
TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that one of its senior officers had been killed in Syria while advising pro-government forces in an eastern town near the Iraqi border.
“Brigadier General Shahrokh Daipour ... was martyred in the town of Albu Kamal in Syria during a mission to advise Syrian pro-government forces,” according to the Guards’ Sepah News.
The brief report did not give the circumstances of the officer’s death. He was described as a former unit commander who was wounded during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war before holding various positions involved with artillery.
Iran, along with Russia, is a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Tehran denies sending professional troops to fight in Iraq and Syria, saying it has only provided military advisors and organised brigades made up of volunteers from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
*‘45 IS militants killed’*
Iraq said on Saturday it had killed 45 militants from the IS group, including senior members, in an air strike in eastern Syria, the second such operation in less than a month.
Iraqi F-16 fighter jets carried out a “successful strike targeting a meeting of Daesh [IS] leaders” on Friday in Hajin, in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, a military statement said.
Among those killed, it said, were a senior member of the militants’ “ministry of war”, his deputy, a local commander and a media official. There was no independent confirmation. - APP/AFP
