TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A Revolutionary Guard general who fought in Syria and Iraq has accidentally killed himself while cleaning a gun.

A Sunday report on the Guard's website said Gen. Ghodratollah Mansouri earlier today accidentally shot himself in the head while cleaning his pistol.

The report said Mansouri was veteran of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and a "defender of the shrine," a reference to Iranians who fight the extremist Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

Since 2014, Mansouri was a regional commander of the Guard's ground forces in the northeastern city of Mashhad, some 900 kilometers east of the capital Tehran.

Hundreds of Iranian forces have been killed fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.

Iran, the regional key supporter of Syria's government, says its forces there only perform an advisory role.