Iranian Revolutionary Guards say general killed in Syria

He is one of the most senior Guard commanders to be killed in Syria, and the second this year.

Iran, an ally of the Syrian government, says it has advisory missions in the country but no military forces. “A very valuable commander and a true believer of Islam and the (1979 Islamic)revolution (of Iran)”, the official said on condition of anonymity. They are now thought to be less than two miles from the northern edge of Aleppo city.

The Russian bombing campaign appears to have weakened these groups, and given IS the opportunity to push forward, he adds.

Human Rights Watch said local groups operating in the central Homs province said that jets that they believed were Russian conducted strikes on the neighboring towns of Zaafaraneh and Rastan, killing another 17 civilians.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the latest push by the extremist militia is “one of the biggest advances the Islamic State has scored in months”. This group is known to fight against ISIS.

The areas were seized from hard-line and mainstream rebel groups, including the ultra-conservative Ahrar al-Sham and the Levantine Front. IS-affiliated accounts on Twitter also announced the militants had seized those villages.

The Army of Conquest, which had made a string of advances against government troops in recent months, has come under attack from Russian warplanes.

The war in Syria grew more complex as French warplanes hit ISIS targets in Raqqa and the terror group killed an Iranian commander outside Aleppo.

An Iranian general has been killed in Aleppo, Syria.

Kweiras base is about 31 miles (50 kilometers) away from the area of the IS offensive.

According to the United Nations, more than 250,000 people have since been killed in the conflict, which continues to pit several heavily-armed factions – including Daesh and the regime itself – against one another.

The commanders, played an important role in Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s, got killed in the suburbs of Aleppo, Iranian state television reported.

An anonymous senior Defence Department official confirmed the news to the New York TImes. Iran is majority Shiite.

Iran has been providing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army with military advice in its fight against rebels since the civil war broke out in 2011.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, described Hamedani’s death as “a huge loss” in the fight against jihadist groups in Syria.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have been assisting Assad forces and Hezbollah in their fighting campaign on the ground in Syria.