Senior Iranian military adviser killed in Iraq

A senior Iranian military officer has been killed while advising Iraqi troops in their fight against ISIS, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday.

"Brigadier General Hamid Taghavi was martyred during a mission to advise the army and Iraqi volunteers... in the city of Samarra," north of Baghdad, said a statement from the elite Iranian military force.

His funeral will be held on Monday in Tehran, it added.

Samarra, 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Baghdad, is a mainly Sunni city but also home to the Askari shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.

Shiite Iran has sent military advisers to Iraq to help train and equip army troops and allied militias in their counteroffensive against ISIS, which seized large areas of the country in a June assault.

It has also armed Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.

Iran has said it is not participating in a U.S.-led coalition conducting air strikes against ISIS positions in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Iranian media have reported the deaths of several military personnel in both Iraq and Syria this year.