A Senior Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Killed in Syria

Iranian news agencies reported that Gholamreza Samayi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in Syria on Wednesday, November 5. According to the Mizan news agency, this 'Sardar' of the IRGC previously held positions such as head of operations for the IRGC headquarters in the east of the country, head of the artillery group of the 5th Nasr Division, and head of intelligence for the artillery and missile group 61 Moharram. The title 'Sardar' in the IRGC is used for the ranks of Brigadier General and Major General. This 57-year-old IRGC commander was born in Torbat Heydarieh in Khorasan Razavi province. The IRGC has repeatedly stated that the presence of its commanders in Syria and Iraq is 'advisory' and that the Islamic Republic has sent forces to these countries at the request of Bashar al-Assad and the Iraqi government. Meanwhile, following this 'advisory' presence, hundreds of IRGC and Basij forces have been killed in Syria and Iraq, but no precise statistics on their numbers have been published. The IRNA news agency reported last July that the number of Iranian and Afghan forces killed in Syria and Iraq at that time was 400. Several senior IRGC commanders, including Ahmad Gholami, Hossein Hamadani, Hamid Taghavi, Shafi Shafiei, Reza Farzaneh, Dariush Dorosti, Ismail Heydari, Hadi Kajbaf, and Abdollah Eskandari, have also been killed in recent years in the conflicts in Syria. Last spring, several Iranian commandos were also killed in Syria. In addition to the forces from the IRGC, Basij, and the Islamic Republic Army present in the conflicts in Syria, Pakistani forces residing in Iran as part of the 'Zainabiyoun' brigade and Afghan forces residing in Iran as part of the 'Fatimiyoun' brigade are also fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad's forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon.