Senior Member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Killed in Syria - Reports

TEHRAN (Sputnik) - A senior member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Farhad Dabirian, has been killed in Syria, the Iranian news agency Fars said on Saturday.

The media outlet did not provide further details on the death of Dabirian, previously an IRGC commander in the central Syrian city of Palmyra, but described him as a "defender of the Sayida Zainab shrine", a Shiite holy site near Damascus.

Iranian troops deployed abroad are usually designated as the defenders of a particular shrine. In Syria, according to Tehran's official position, there are only Iranian advisers who provide counselling support to Syrian forces in the fight against terrorism.

The Fars news agency reported in February that a member of Iran’s IRGC had been killed following a rocket attack on the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo.

The IRGC soldier was identified as Hamidreza Babelkhani, according to the news agency, who stated that he was killed while working to ensure Iran's national security.