News - Middle East: A military advisor of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has been martyred in Syria after foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists and anti-Damascus militants launched a major attack on the Syrian military positions in the northwestern province of Aleppo. 

“Brigadier General Kioumars Pour Hashemi, known as Haj Hashem, one of the defenders of the [Sayyida Zaynab] Shrine and senior IRGC military advisers in Syria, was martyred in overnight attacks by Zionist Takfiri terrorists on the outskirts of Aleppo," the IRGC said in a statement Thursday. 

The Iranian military advisors, who are present in Syria at the official invitation of the Syrian government, have played an important role in helping the Syrians fight terrorism and establish peace, stability, and lasting security in the Arab country.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011, with Damascus saying the Western states and their regional allies are aiding terrorist groups to wreak havoc in the Arab country.

Terror outfits are seeking to hinder the Syrian government’s efforts aimed at consolidating security and stability in the country, which is also under the Israeli regime's regular aggression.

Israel has been the principal supporter of terrorist groups that oppose the democratically-elected government of President Bashar al-Assad since the foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria.

Tel Aviv has significantly ramped up its strikes since last October, when it began a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, in what has been described by observers as a reckless bid threatening to further fuel tensions throughout the region.

The Israeli regime has carried out hundreds of attacks against Syria since 2011, when the Arab nation found itself in the grip of rampant foreign-backed militancy and terrorism.

On Wednesday, members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist outfit and their allied armed factions reportedly attacked at least 10 areas under the control of the Syrian military in the west of Aleppo city and the eastern countryside of Idlib. 

More than 130 people including soldiers as well as militants from both sides were said to be killed as a result of the heavy clashes.

Civilians, including children, had been killed and injured in the clashes, which saw Syrian army forces fire “hundreds of shells and missiles on civil and military positions” during the fighting.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitor, said, on Thursday that 65 HTS members were killed along with 18 from allied militant groups and 49 members of government forces.

The Syrian army, in a statement carried by state news agency SANA on Thursday, said “a huge and large-scale terrorist attack, with large numbers of terrorists and using medium and heavy weapons”, had targeted villages, towns and military sites.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network cited a Syrian source in Idlib as saying that HTS had directed all hospitals in the city and the northern countryside to stop surgeries and prepare to treat only the militants injured in the battles.

The source said the terrorist outfit used rocket launchers and mortars to pave the way for advancing towards the Syrian army points in Qabtan al-Jabal, Bala and Sheikh Aqil in the west of Aleppo.

The Syrian army forces were also reported to have pounded areas near militant-held Idlib city and the cities of Ariha and Sarmada along with other areas in southern Idlib Province.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, is considered a terrorist organization by Syria, Russia, and several other countries.

 Source: Press TV