TEHRAN, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran held a funeral ceremony on Monday honoring a senior commander killed in Iraq, local media reported.
The commander, Gen. Hamid Taqavi, of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), died in the Iraqi city of Samarrah on Sunday while performing "an advisory mission in the fight against the Takfiri (Sunni groups) and the IS (the Islamic State) terrorists," Tasnim news agency said.
The general, who once served as a commander during the eight-year Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s, was killed in the vicinity of the Shiite shrine in Samarrah.
The funeral, at the IRGC General Staff Headquarters in Tehran, was attended by a number of high ranking officials, including Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, former defense minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi.
Earlier this month, Iran's Foreign Ministry denied reports that Iranian fighters had targeted the IS militants on Iraqi soil.
"We do not confirm any reports concerning our military cooperation in Iraq against the IS militants," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said.
"No change has taken place in Iran's policy," she said, adding that Iran only offers consultations and military aid to Iraq within international law.
Western media had earlier quoted the Pentagon as saying that Iranian fighter jets had conducted airstrikes from inside Iran on IS posts in eastern Iraq.
Iran and the United States have already denied that they were cooperating against the Jihadists in Iraq.
The Islamic republic, which vows to protect the Shiite cities and shrines in Iraq against IS threats, has acknowledged the presence of its military commanders in the neighboring country for military consultations.
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