[Rudaw] A top Iranian military commander has been killed in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has confirmed. No details have been given as to the circumstances of his death.Brigadier General Shahrokh Daipour was killed on Friday in the town of Albu Kamal, according to Fars news agency.
Daipour, who is originally from Kermanshah, was in Syria to train regime forces. He was a former unit commander during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988).
Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, Iran has played a key role in supporting the regime of Bashir al-Assad, deploying thousands of its own personnel. Iran says its troops are only there as military advisers.
In April, Israeli jets targeted Syrian government military bases, reportedly killing Iranian forces.
On February 7, 2017, Seyed Mohammad Ali Shahidi Mahallati, Iran’s Director of Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs (DFMVA), said the families of more than 1,000 Iranian military forces killed in Syria are under the support of the DFMVA.
In March, during another event in Tehran, Mahallati said the DFMVA is taking care of 2,100 families of military personals killed in Syria and Iraq.
At the end of 2017, widespread protests swept Iran as people protested the nation’s involvement in Syria and demanded better living conditions.
Israeli officials have repeatedly asked Iranian military forces to withdraw from Syria. In May, Russia, another key Assad ally, said all foreign forces must leave Syria.
On May 21, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a list of 12 demands of Iran, including the withdrawal Iranian forces from Syria.
As Iran is expected to face more economic hardship with the return of US sanctions, it will be more costly for Iran to have a large military presence in Syria.
| The Times of Israel adds: |
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
fighters in northeastern Syria.
The exact circumstances of Shahrokh Daiepour’s death were not disclosed, but the state-run Fars news agency said he had been involved in training fighters from the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy which has been fighting in Syria alongside forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
Daiepour had served as a commander in the Islamic Theocratic
Republic’s Navy during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
He was said to have been killed in the same area bordering Iraq where a massive air strike killed more than 50 pro-regime fighters last week. Damascus has accused the US-led coalition of carrying out the late-night June 17 strike on al-Hari, a town near the Iraqi border controlled by regional militias fighting in the complex seven-year war on behalf of Assad.
The day after the attack, a US official also told AFP that Washington "has reasons to believe that it was an Israeli strike."
Israel declined to comment, but a strike so far from its border would differ from most other strikes in Syria attributed to Israel, which have largely taken place closer to Syria’s borders with Israel and Leb.
The target, apparently Shiite Iraqi militia fighters loyal to Assad, would also mark a shift for Israel, which has previously only carried out
s against Iran’s forces and its proxies, according to reports.At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel was "taking action ‐ against efforts to establish a military presence by Iran and its proxies in Syria both close to the border and deep inside Syria. We will act against these efforts anywhere in Syria."