Bodyguard of former Iranian president killed in Syria

The bodyguard of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been killed in battle in Syria, Iran's Fars news agency reported on Friday.

Abdollah Baqeri Niyaraki was killed while "fulfilling his duty as military adviser" in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, the agency said.

Funeral services for the bodyguard are scheduled to be held on Saturday in Tehran.

Last Sunday, Iranian news websites announced the death of Muslim Khizab, a colonel in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps killed during confrontations with armed groups in northwest Syria.

The website mentioned that Khizab was a military adviser to the Syrian army and belonged to the Ya Zahra battalion of the IRGC.

There has been a steady increase in the number of IRGC members killed in Syria.

A former commander of the Saberin Special Brigade, Colonel Farshad Hasounizadeh, and a former commander of the Hojjat 1 Brigade, Hamid Mokhtar-band, were both killed on Tuesday.

The deaths of the two former commanders come days after a top IRGC commander, Brigadier General Hossein Hamadani, was killed in the outskirts of the city of Aleppo.