A commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force has been killed after the ultralight gyroplane he was aboard crashed during a counterterrorism exercise in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province close to the border with Pakistan.
Two officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including Brigadier General Hamid Mazandarani, were killed when the light aircraft crashed.
Mazandarani was commanding the Ninwa Brigade in Golestan province. The second casualty was the pilot of the aircraft, Hamed Jandaghi.
The crash occurred during the “Shahids of Defence” exercise, which was practicing against armed smugglers and militants operating in areas bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Earlier, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.
A helicopter carrying Raisi disappeared in a hilly area in East Azerbaijan Province in northwestern Iran on the evening of May 19. The Iranian delegation was returning from Azerbaijan, where Raisi had held a meeting with his counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
