IS claims killing of Iranian military adviser in Iraq

ISIS has claimed the killing of a senior Iranian officer advising Iraqi forces in their fight against the jihadis, according to images posted on jihadi forums Monday.
BAGHDAD: ISIS has claimed the killing of a senior Iranian officer advising Iraqi forces in their fight against the jihadis, according to images posted on jihadi forums Monday.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Sunday announced the death of Brig. Gen. Hamid Taghavi, who had been training the army and Iraqi volunteers in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.
One jihadi forum posted an image of the officer standing next to three others, with a red circle around his head above the caption: "A photo of the miscreant Hamid Taghavi who was killed by the men of ISIS in the region of Samarra."
Another image on the forum purportedly showed the body of the Iranian officer.
ISIS has not said how Taghavi died, but his funeral was held in Tehran Monday in the presence of several senior officials.
"If people like the martyr Taghavi were not engaged in Syria and Iraq against the terrorists, the enemy would surely look to create insecurity in our country," Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani told funeral goers, the official FNA reported.
Samarra, 110 kilometres (70 miles) north of Baghdad, and home to the Askari shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.
Several Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, have declared the preservation of Iraqi Shiite sites a "red line".