TEHRAN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday that one of its senior members has been killed in attacks in Syria by "terrorists" with alleged ties to Israel.
In a statement published on its official news outlet Sepah News, IRGC identified the slain member as Kioumars Pourhashemi, "a senior military adviser" in Syria, adding he was killed Wednesday night by "Takfiri terrorists" led by Israel in the suburbs of Aleppo.
Pourhashemi fought for Iran in the war with Iraq in the 1980s and served as a "military adviser" in Iraq and Syria in the following years, it said.
The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group and allied factions on Wednesday launched a massive offensive in the western countryside of Aleppo, prompting the Syrian army troops to engage in combat with them.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported that since the beginning of the clashes, at least 153 combatants have been killed, including 80 HTS fighters, 19 from allied rebel factions of the so-called National Army, and 54 Syrian government soldiers, including at least four officers.
The HTS is designated as a terrorist organization by Syria, Russia, and several other countries. ■
