DUBAI: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that one of its officers, Colonel Sayad Khodai, was killed in a rare assassination in Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Khodai was “one of the defenders of the shrines”, it said, referring to military personnel or advisers which Iran says fight on its behalf to protect Shia sites in Iraq or Syria against groups such as Islamic State.

Two people on a motorcycle opened fire on Khodai, Tasnim reported, citing an informed source.

Iran has been sending fighters to Syria since the early stages of its civil war to support its ally, President Bashar al-Assad, against rebels.