Terrorists are withholding the bodies of 12 Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed last week in Syria, an Iranian military official said Tuesday, quoted by ISNA news agency.
According to Iranian media, 13 Revolutionary Guards military advisers died last week in fighting in Khan Tuman, southwest of the battleground city of Aleppo, and 21 others were wounded.
It was Iran's biggest loss of forces within a very short period, based on official figures. All were from Iran's northern province of Mazandaran, AFP reports.
"The Takfiris (extremists) are holding 12 bodies of the Mazandaran martyrs," said Hossein Ali Rezayi, a Guards spokesman in the region. "As fighting is still ongoing in this region, the repatriation will be possible only after the liberation of those areas."