ISIS flag Syria
ISIS militants killed Iranian military's senior commander Gen. Hossein Hamedani, Iran's state media reported Friday. An Islamic State group flag flies in the northern Syrian town of Tel Abyad as it is pictured from the Turkish border town of Akcakale, in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, on June 15, 2015. Getty Images/Gokhan Sahin

A senior Iranian military commander in the country’s Revolutionary Guards was killed in Syria Thursday by Islamic State group militants, Iran’s state media reported Friday. Gen. Hossein Hamedani was killed on the outskirts of the northern province of Aleppo, according to Press TV.

Hamedani, one of the most senior Guard commanders to be killed in Syria, was “giving military advice in its fight against terrorist groups,” Press TV reported.

The Revolutionary Guard -- the elite division of the Iranian army -- said in a statement, according to Agence France-Presse, that Hamedani played an "important role ... reinforcing the front of Islamic resistance against the terrorists."

Hamedani was supervising the Quds Force, a special forces division fighting Syrian rebels. He reportedly played a major role in Iran’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.

Iran, a Shia-majority country, is one of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s prime allies and has provided both military and political support to the war-torn country. Assad belongs to the Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while Syrian rebels are mostly Sunnis who are fighting to overthrow Assad's government.