Iran holds funeral for Revolutionary Guard general killed in Iraq

Iranian civilians and armed forces members carry the flag draped coffin of Brig. Gen. Hamid Taqavi, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander who was killed during a battle against the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq, in his funeral ceremony outside the Guard compound in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014. The Guard said Sunday that Taqavi was "martyred while performing his advisory mission" in Samarra, a town north of Baghdad that is home to a major Shiite shrine. He is the highest ranking Iranian officer known to have been killed abroad since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, in which he fought. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) (The Associated Press)

Civilians and armed forces members carry the flag draped coffin of Brig. Gen. Hamid Taqavi, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander who was killed during a battle against the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq, in his funeral ceremony outside the Guard compound in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014. The Guard said Sunday that Taqavi was "martyred while performing his advisory mission" in Samarra, a town north of Baghdad that is home to a major Shiite shrine. He is the highest ranking Iranian officer known to have been killed abroad since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, in which he fought. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) (The Associated Press)

A group of people and Iranian Revolutionary Guard members carry the flag draped coffin of Brig. Gen. Hamid Taqavi, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander who was killed during a battle against the Islamic State extremist group in Iraq, in his funeral ceremony outside the Guard compound in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2014. The Guard said Sunday that Taqavi was "martyred while performing his advisory mission" in Samarra, a town north of Baghdad that is home to a major Shiite shrine. He is the highest ranking Iranian officer known to have been killed abroad since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, in which he fought. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) (The Associated Press)