Oct 9, 2015

The website for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed Oct. 9 that Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani was killed in Syria. Hamedani is perhaps the highest ranking Iranian general to be killed in Syria’s 4-year-long civil war. He played significant roles in major events of the Islamic Republic, from the Iran-Iraq War and the 2009 post-election protests to Iran’s increasing involvement in propping up the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

According to the IRGC statement, Hamedani was killed on the night of Oct. 8 in the city of Aleppo at the hands of Islamic State terrorists. The statement described Hamedani’s role as to “protect the Shrine of Zeinab [in Damascus] and strengthen the Islamic resistance front in Syria’s fights against terrorists.” The IRGC invited the general public to attend his funeral service, which will be held in Tehran on Oct. 11.

A number of Iranian websites published accounts of Hamedani’s roles in the last 36 years. He is one of the founders of IRGC in Hamadan. After the 1979 revolution, as a member of the IRGC, he helped in putting down an insurrection in Iran’s Kurdistan region during the Iran-Iraq War. During that war, which lasted for eight years, Hamedani commanded a number of important units. Both of his memoirs, “Moonlight Khayyen” and “Brother, It Is a Duty,” cover his time at the IRGC and the Iran-Iraq War.

In 2009, Hamedani was commander of an IRGC unit, Tehran’s Mohammad Rasoulallah Corps, when street protests erupted over the presidential elections. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, in remembering Hamedani’s career, praised his efforts in “confronting the American coup in the sedition of 2009.”

Hamedani’s most recent role was helping to establish a people’s militia in Syria. In March, in discussing his role in Syria, Hamedani said, “Iran’s advisory actions revolve more around monitoring and activating mobilization centers with a cultural focus. We did not try to engineer the behavior or try to use designed principles; rather we spent time with practical steps to create unity and honor.”