TEHRAN (AFP) – 31 Aug. 2016- Iranian media first reported on Wednesday that a retired Iranian general has been killed while battling Syrian anti- Assad rebels in northern Syria, .
Ahmad Gholami, who had served as a senior Revolutionary Guards commander in the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s, died on Tuesday “while fighting … in Aleppo, Syria,” said the Fars news agency, which is close to the Guards.
But some Iranian regime media reported later that he has not died but hospitalized with sever wounds to the head and he is in coma fighting for his life.
Iran is the principle backer of Bashar al-Assad. It denies that any of its professional soldiers are active in Syria, it also leads large volunteer forces, comprised of fighters from both Iran and neighboring Afghanistan.
Iran does not provide precise casualty figures for those killed in action in Syria and Iraq, but Iranian media have previously reported “hundreds” of “military advisers and volunteers” have died in recent years.