TEHRAN: Two Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen were killed by a US drone in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, Iranian state media said on Monday, in a report that was denied by the Pentagon.

The official IRNA news agency said the two had been posted to Iraq as advisers in the war against IS jihadists and that they died in the drone strike on March 23.

Pictures of the two men, named as Ali Yazdani and Hadi Jafari, were posted on Iranian news websites after their funerals on home soil.

The Fars news agency called Jafari, 29, the third “martyr in defence of the shrines” from the northern Iranian city of Amol. Yazdani was buried in Tehran, it reported.

Iran, the predominant Shia Muslim power in the Middle East, has said it is supporting ally Iraq and will protect its holy places against IS.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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