DUBAI: A senior military advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who also served as Chief-of-Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, died Friday of an “illness,” the state IRNA news agency reported.
Hassan Firouzabadi, who was 70-years-old, held the most senior military authority in Iran from 1989 to 2016. IRNA did not specify the illness that killed him although Iranian domestic news agencies, including ISNA and Fars, reported that he died of COVID-19.
The US treasury had sanctioned him for “serious human rights abuses.”
Last week, Iran reported a record daily 709 deaths from COVID-19 as the worst-hit country in the Middle East faced a fifth surge in infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.
A total of 30,279 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Iran Thursday, with infections since the outbreak surpassed 5,055,500.
