Iranian Colonel Qassem Gharib was killed on Monday as Assad forces and Lebanese Hezbollah attempted to storm the besieged city of Zabadani.
Iranian websites also confirmed Col. Guabish’s death in Zabadani, with the Iranian death toll rising to two officers on the outskirts of the city.
Assad forces also mourned the death of two officers killed in the city; lieutenant Yazan Salem from the village of ash-Shajar in the countryside of Hama, and Captain Aziz Safia from Assad's home town of Qardaha in Lattakia. Two colonels were killed in the beginning of the campaign.
Hezbollah forces mourned Qasim Saeed from the town of Hwash al-Biqaa town, with the total death toll among Hezbollah militants reaching 18 fighters, including two of its leaders.
Activists have described Zabadani as a "black hole", swallowing regime fighters, Hezbollah and Iranian militias.
Pro-regime troops have been unsuccessful so far in storming Zabadani for the past two weeks, despite hundreds of military checkpoints, Republican Guard battalions and Hezbollah artillery, which shells the city from inside Lebanon.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
