Iran is bringing home the body of
a top-ranking military officer killed in April in southern
Syria, Iranian news agencies reported, at least the second
senior Iranian to die there this year while supporting Damascus
in the war.
Hadi Kajbaf, a major general in the elite Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed near the
rebel-held town of Busr al-Harir, about 100 km (60 miles) south
of Damascus, the IRGC-linked Tasnim agency reported late on
Friday.
Three other Iranians were killed alongside Kajbaf including
a mid-ranking Shi'ite Muslim cleric, the semi-official Fars news
agency reported.
Iranian military and financial support have been crucial to
helping President Bashar al-Assad survive the war, now in its
fifth year. The conflict is a focal point for Shi'ite Islamist
Iran's power struggle with Sunni Saudi Arabia, which supports
the insurgents battling to topple Assad.
Kajbaf held the highest rank used in Iran's armed forces,
making him more senior than an IRGC brigadier general who was
killed in January by an Israeli missile strike in Syrian
territory near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, along with a
number of fighters from Hezbollah.
Southern Syria is one of the regions where Assad has faced
significant setbacks since March. The insurgents fighting there
include the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and groups that profess
a more secular outlook and are backed by Assad's Arab foes.
The late commander's son, Sajad Kajbaf, told Tasnim the body
was due to be flown to Iran on Friday night after being delayed
by a day. It was not clear how Iran had obtained the body, which
was taken by the rebels when he was killed.
An unknown number of Iranian military advisers have deployed
in Syria in support of the Syrian army and the militias fighting
alongside it.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani recently vowed to back the
Syrian government "until the end of the road" after the
battlefield setbacks suffered by Assad.
Iran, the world's major Shi'ite power, justifies its
intervention in Syria by portraying the mostly Sunni rebels as
hardline Sunni Islamist extremists. Islamic State and the al
Qaeda-linked Nusra Front are the two most powerful insurgent
groups in Syria today.
Iran projects power in the Middle East by allying with
regional proxies who follow Shi'ite Islam or its offshoots.
Assad belongs to the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiism.
REUTERS