A senior officer from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been killed in Syria by rebels fighting President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, it has been reported.
According to Anadolu, the Iranian media said that Mohammed Sahib Karam Ardekani was killed during clashes with armed rebels in the city of Daraa, south of the capital Damascus. The rebels said earlier that they had captured an Iranian soldier while fighting regime forces in the same area. They named him as Imad Mezrad Jafari.
Under interrogation, Jafari claimed that he arrived in Syria almost a year ago as part of a contingent of 3,000 troops from the Fatimiyoun Brigade of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Their objective, he claimed, was to protect Shia shrines in Syria, especially the Sayeda Zaynab shrine in Damascus.