Iran announces the death of a high-ranking Revolutionary Guard general after a long illness

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s state TV is reporting a high-ranking general in the Revolutionary Guard has died after an illness. Gen. Vajihollah Moradi was one of the commanders of the foreign wing of the Guard, TV said. He was also a comrade of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. Iran occasionally holds funerals for its soldiers fallen in Syria though officials say Iranian forces are there only as advisers. Iran is Syrian President Bashar Assad’s main regional supporter in the Arab nation’s lengthy civil war.