An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general died on December 16 after he accidentally shot himself in the head while cleaning his pistol, official media report.

The reports identified the commander as General Qodratollah Mansouri, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and a "defender of the shrine," a reference to Iranians who fight the Islamic State extremist group in Syria and Iraq.

Since 2014, Mansouri was a regional commander of the Revolutionary Guards' ground forces in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters