News - Middle East: Iranians have taken part in a mass funeral procession for a senior military advisor of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), who was martyred in Syria’s northwestern province of Aleppo after foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists unleashed a major assault on government-held positions.

Mourners gathered in the northern Shahrak-e-Mahallati neighborhood of the capital Tehran on Saturday morning and carried Brigadier General Kioumars Pourhashemi’s coffin, draped with the national Iranian flag, on their shoulders.

High-ranking military commanders and government officials were also present at the ceremony.

The IRGC public relations department announced in a statement on Thursday that Pourhashemi, better known by the nom de guerre Haj Hashem, who was one of the defenders of the Sayyida Zaynab Shrine and senior IRGC military advisers in Syria, had been killed in attacks by Takfiri terrorists on the outskirts of Aleppo.

Iran maintains an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus to help the war-torn Arab country defeat the foreign-backed militants who have been fighting the Syrian government since 2011.

Israel has been the principal supporter of terrorist groups that oppose the government of President Bashar al-Assad since the foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria in March 2011.

'Support for Resistance to continue fearlessly' 

The deputy commander for coordination of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force said among the Islamic Republic of Iran’s principled policies is to courageously maintain support for the Axis of Resistance.

“Resistance forces who once pelted their enemies with stones, are now equipped with sophisticated armament," Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi said at the funeral.

“I hereby declare that such capability is homegrown, and resistance forces currently produce a wide range of missiles and drones by themselves. Had this matter of fact not been established, it would have been very difficult to support the Resistance as the forces are under sanctions and siege.”

He also scoffed at Israel’s allegations of destroying the missile prowess of the Axis of Resistance, noting that the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah fired 380 missiles at positions within the occupied territories on the same day that Israeli authorities made such a grandiose claim.

No matter how hard the Zionist regime, with the full support of the US, would try, it cannot destroy the Resistance, Masjedi added.

He said the Iranian nation, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and Iran’s Armed Forces are standing by the side of resistance forces, just as the martyred Pourhashemi did. This is the official position of the Islamic Republic and it will continue to support the Resistance without any fear and hesitation.

Press TV