The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran announced on Thursday that one of its colonels had succumbed to injuries sustained in an air strike, which they attributed to the US-led coalition in Syria. According to Guards' chief Hossein Salami, Ahmadreza Afshari from the IRGC's "aerospace advisory forces" in Syria was "martyred due to injuries from aerial bombardment," as reported by state news agency Irna. The colonel was moved from Syria to Iran for medical treatment after the air strike, with the statement suggesting the incident took place two to three weeks prior. In late July, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported that an air strike had killed three pro-Iran fighters in Syria's Deir Ezzor province, an area of significant Iranian influence. This region is frequently targeted by Israel and occasionally by the United States, although no immediate claim of responsibility was made for the strike. A spokesman for the US-led military coalition, established in 2014 to combat the Daesh group, stated that "neither the coalition nor US forces conducted overnight strikes in Deir Ezzor." Since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Israel has executed hundreds of strikes, primarily targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including those from Lebanon's Hezbollah group. Israel seldom comments on individual strikes in Syria, a crucial ally of the Islamic republic. Regional tensions, already exacerbated by the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, escalated further after the July 31 killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh during a visit to Tehran. Iran accused Israel of Haniyeh's death and pledged to retaliate.