‘Terrorists’ kill Iranian official leaving Syria to Lebanon

An Iranian engineer en route from the Syrian capital to Beirut was killed at the hands of “armed terrorist gangs,” Tehran’s embassy in Lebanon said in a statement.

“It is with great sorrow and regret that the Iranian Embassy announces the martyrdom of engineer Hussam Khoshnevis, the head of the Iranian Committee for Reconstruction in Lebanon, while he was en route from Damascus to Beirut at the hands of armed terrorists,” the Iranian Embassy statement said in a statement on its website Thursday.

According to the statement, Iran’s Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi said the embassy would receive condolences Thursday and Friday.

As-Safir newspaper reported Thursday that information indicated that Khoshnevis was in Syria, specifically in the northwestern city of Aleppo, on a reconstruction project.

Reports of Khoshnevis’ killing surfaced late Wednesday.