Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Hamedani. (AP/Tasnim News Agency, Hamed Malekpour)
In less than a week, Iran has seen three high-ranking commanders of the Revolutionary Guard Corps killed in Syria, including one of the IRGC’s founders.
Two Iranian military commanders were killed in Syria Tuesday, Iranian state media reported. Colonel Farshad Hasounizadeh, the former commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Saberin Special Brigade, and Hajj Hamid Mokhtar-band, former commander of IRGC Hazrat Hojjat 1st Brigade, were serving in southern Syria to provide military advice.
The death of these two officers is a major blow to Iran and the IRGC. The Saberin Brigade is a special forces unit of the IRGC specializing in rapid response. It has been deployed to Syria and Iraq in order to fight against ISIS. The Hazrat Hojjat 1st Brigade is Iran’s best armored unit.
The deaths follow directly on the heels of another major Iranian loss in Syria, that of Brigadier General Hossein Hamadani, who was killed during an ISIS assault near Aleppo. Hamadani was one of the founders of the IRGC. One of his responsibilities was to protect the Shine of Zeinab, the sister of the third Imam in Shia Islam, which is located in Damascus, from attack by ISIS.
At Hamadani’s funeral, IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari told mourners, “The faithful Iranian people are telling the US, the Zionist regime [of Israel] and the Al Saud [of Saudi Arabia] that they will defend Muslim nations in the region until the last drop of their blood.”
Iran announced in September 2014 that it would be dispatching military commanders to friendly states to provide military advice. “Some of our commanders are in the field to give military advice to the Iraqi army, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance movement,” Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Gholam Ali Rashid told a gathering of top military officers in Tehran.
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