Two members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, including an ex-bodyguard for Iran's former president have been killed in Syria, Iranian media reported on October 23.
Ramezan Sharif, a spokesman for the guards, was quoted by Fars news agency as saying: "Abdollah Bagheri and Amin Karimi were killed yesterday and today on a mission in Syria."
Bagheri, 33, was former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's personal bodyguard and was killed in the northern city of Aleppo.
Sharif said five or six Iranian volunteers were also killed in Syria but he rejected social-media rumors that put the number of recent Iranian casualties in Syria at 15.
He said the guards' presence in Syria "has increased since the recent field developments" in the conflict-torn country but gave no further details.
A key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iran provides the government in Damascus with financial aid and military advisers in a civil war that has killed more than 250,000 and displaced millions.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said this week that Tehran has increased the number of its military advisers in Syria.