IRGC to raise number of military advisors in Syria

Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is to increase the number of military advisors as per request from the Syrian government, an IRGC official said on Sunday.

Brigadier-General Ramazan Sharif noted that four IRGC personnel who were in Syria to defend the Holy Shrines were martyred.

He said the IRGC decision to increase its advisory forces came as the outcome of recent developments in different parts of Syria as well as the victories of resistance groups to Takfiri terrorists.

The former commander of IRGC’s Saberin Special Brigade Colonel Farshad Hasounizadeh was martyred on his mission to Syria as military adviser in Syria and fighting the Takfiri terrorists in the Muslim country.

Former commander of IRGC Hazrat Hojjat 1 Brigade Hajj Hamid Mokhtar-band, nicknamed Abu Zahra, attained martyrdom in Syria.
Both Hasounizadeh and Mokhtar-band, the IRGC war veterans, were martyred in Southern Syria.

Their martyrdom comes just days after another IRGC war veteran Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani was martyred in an attack by the ISIL Takfiri terrorists in the outskirts of the city of Aleppo on expedition to defend the holy Shia Muslim shrines in the country, an IRGC statement said on Friday.

General Hamedani undertook a mission to Syria to render military advice to the Syrian army and popular forces in their fight against the ISIL terrorists in the Arab country.

According to Iran’s military protocol, those missing in action or killed in operation are promoted to a higher rank and that’s why in a few Persian-language media, Colonel Hasounizadeh has been referred to as a General.

In September 2014, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Gholam Ali Rashid announced that Iran’s military advisors are serving the friendly regional states to contribute to international campaign against terrorism.