Ali Yazdani and Hadi Jafari were acting as advisers in the fight to liberate Tikrit from the self-proclaimed Islamic State when they were killed in a drone strike on March 23, the IRNA news agency reported.
But the US Department of Defense denied any involvement in their deaths, stating that there were no strikes in Tikrit during that time.
“Coalition forces initiated air strikes near Tikrit on March 25, two days after the alleged incident occurred and no air strikes were conducted in or near Tikrit on March 23,” said US Central Command Spokesman Major Omar Villarreal in a statement.
“We have no information to corroborate claims that coalition air strikes killed two IRGC members,” he added, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.