Iranian General Killed in Syria

[Rycon67]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/worl ... 2013_02_14

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/14 ... l-20130215

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

Last week a general with the Iranian military was apparently killed in Syria while traveling to conduct business in Lebanon. No specifics have been given as to who killed him, but the possibility of Syrian rebels being behind the killing hasn't been ruled out.

It's long been suspected that Iran has been sending people to help the Syrian government in the ongoing civil war, but apparently this is the first confirmation given that Iran has senior officers inside Syria.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

We post full articles and not just links over here, thank you.

[Aaron MkII]

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/14 ... l-20130215

TEHRAN — Top political and security officials in Iran mourned Thursday for a general in the nation's Revolutionary Guard reportedly slain this week while traveling from Syria to Lebanon.

The assassination of Gen. Hassan Shateri was the strongest public indication to date that senior Iranian military commanders have been dispatched to war-ravaged Syria to assist the embattled government of President Bashar Assad.


Details about the general's death remained sketchy Thursday, two days after he was reported slain en route from Damascus, the Syrian capital, to Beirut. Iranian authorities were mum on whether he was killed on Syrian or Lebanese soil.

If Shateri's death occurred in Syria, as is widely suspected, the general would be the first senior Iranian commander publicly known to have been killed in the Syrian conflict.

Iranian news reports blamed "Israeli agents" but provided no further details. Iran often accuses Syrian rebels of being pawns of Israel and the West.

There were no definitive reports of Syrian opposition forces having carried out the assassination. The rebels often allege that units from Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with Tehran, assist Syrian government forces.

The opposition and its allies, including the United States, have accused Iran of propping up Assad's regime with military, logistical and financial aid. Iran has downplayed its military role in supporting Assad, its close ally, as he confronts a rebellion against his rule.

Iranian news reports referred to the general as an "engineer" and emphasized his role in reconstruction of war-battered zones of Lebanon and Afghanistan. There was no public mention of any military or strategic duties.

Among those mourning at a public funeral in Tehran were Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, high-ranking clerics and the chiefs of the Revolutionary Guard and its foreign arm, the Quds Force.

Gen. Qasim Sulaimani, who heads the Quds Force, personally notified the general's family of his death, Iranian news reports said, a fact that seemed to confirm the slain general's reported link to the shadowy force.

The general's death again highlights Iran's support for both Syria and Hezbollah, allies in what Tehran calls the "axis of resistance" to Israel and the West.

In Syria, meanwhile, rebels reportedly captured most of an eastern oil city, Shaddada, after a fierce three-day battle that left scores dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based pro-opposition group. The observatory reported that the dead included more than 100 security personnel, dozens of civilian oil workers, and 30 fighters with Al Nusra Front, an Islamist rebel faction that has been labeled a terrorist group by Washington.

That's just the middle one, the other two require you to subscribe.

[Rycon67]

We post full articles and not just links over here, thank you.

I honestly don't know how to do that, posting the text?

Is that a rule of the forum or just something that everyone normally does? Not to be mean, but I've not paid much attention. Most other forums I've visited are fine with just the link(s) to a story.

That's just the middle one, the other two require you to subscribe.

Sorry about that. When I clicked on the articles it showed the entire article text. I don't know if it gave me a one time freebee or what might have happened.

[Flagg]

It's a rule of the forum. And don't worry, it's perfectly legal under fair use.

[Losonti Tokash]

It's technically a rule, but since most news sites explicitly forbid reposting content as a violation of copyright law, I don't entirely blame people who just post links and excerpts.

[Rycon67]

It's a rule of the forum. And don't worry, it's perfectly legal under fair use.

I never considered quoting a news article would be breaking any kind of law, otherwise most forums on the web would probably be shut down due to lawsuits by now. TBH, I'm not familiar with how to make the text appear. I can highlight, copy, and paste, and that's about it.

[madd0ct0r]

that's about all most of us do.

[Alyeska]

Quoting an entire article can get a website sued and a DMCA notice filed against it. Quoting an excerpt and linking to the original is much safer.