Iran claims US drone killed 2 Revolutionary Guard advisers in Iraq

Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi, right, meeting UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, in Baghdad on March 30, 2015. Iraqi prime minister's office/AFP Photo

BAGHDAD // Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says a US drone strike killed two of its advisers near the Iraqi city of Tikrit, but Washington said on Monday its coalition conducted no airstrikes against ISIL in the area during that time.

The US Central Command said it did not target the area around Tikrit between March 22 to 24, the period when the Guard said the two men were killed.

The Guard said on its sepahnews.ir website the strike happened on March 23 as the men supported Iraqi forces trying to retake the ISIL-held city of Tikrit. It identified the advisers as Ali Yazdani and Hadi Jafari, saying they were buried on Sunday.

Iran occasionally reports on the death of its forces in Iraq and Syria, where it is backing embattled president Bashar Assad, but this is the first time it has said it has lost forces in an attack by the US in those campaigns.

The US-led coalition began surveillance around Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, on March 21 in support of operations to retake it after Iraqi efforts had stalled. The coalition said it began airstrikes on Tikrit the night of March 25.

In Baghdad on Monday, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over “summary killings, abductions and destruction of property perpetrated by forces and militias fighting alongside Iraqi armed forces” in their war against ISIL.

The UN chief met Iraqi president Fouad Massoum and prime minister Haider Al Abadi during the visit.

* Associated Press and Reuters