Top Iranian commander said killed in Syria
Ahmed Hiyari, leader of the al-Hussein Brigades, reportedly succumbs to wounds after two days in hospital
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
A top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has been killed fighting against Syrian rebels, Arab media sources reported on Thursday.
Ahmed Hiyari, commander of the al-Hussein Brigades, died two days after he was injured in a clash near the city of Latakia in northwest Syria.
The Iranian ambassador to Syria visited Hiyari while he was in hospital, Israel’s Channel 10 said, citing Arab media reports.
Iran has backed the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the country’s four-year civil war by providing military support and fighting units via its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.
Last week, a senior Israeli security official said a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had orchestrated rocket fire on northern Israel from Syria.
Four rockets were fired from Syrian territory and landed in the northern Galilee and the Golan Heights.
According the official, who was not identified, Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestinian Division of the Iranian al-Quds Force, planned the attack. Israel said it was carried out by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror group that operates mostly out of the Gaza Strip, but whose headquarters are in Damascus. The Islamic Jihad denied its involvement.
In January, an alleged Israeli airstrike Sunday near Syria’s Quneitra border crossing with Israel killed six members of Hezbollah and also killed six Iranians, including Iranian general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi.
