Iran announces death of Revolutionary Guards general after long illness

Tehran, Iran — A high-ranking general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has died following an illness, Iranian state television reported Saturday.

Gen. Vajihollah Moradi was one of the commanders of the Guard’s foreign wing, the television said. He was also a comrade of General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

State television announced that a funeral ceremony would take place on Sunday in the northern town of Babolsar.

Iran occasionally holds funerals for its fallen soldiers in Syria, although officials say Iranian forces are there only in an advisory capacity.

Iran is the main regional backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Arab country’s long civil war. Hundreds of Iranian soldiers have been killed in the war in Syria.