ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The bodies of five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members were transferred from Iraq into Iran on Friday, two days after they were killed in a US-Saudi airstrike in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, Iranian state media reported - an increase from a preliminary toll of four IRGC personnel reported a day earlier.
"The bodies of five IRGC members who were martyred in US-Saudi airstrikes in Iraq's [eastern] Diyala province entered the country through the Mehran border crossing [in western Iran]," the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said.
According to IRNA, the slain IRGC personnel "were participating in securing Arbaeen processions in Diyala."
Arbaeen marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the third Shia Imam, Hussein ibn Ali, who was killed in battle at Karbala in 680 AD. Millions of pilgrims - especially from Iran - travel to Iraq each year to commemorate the event with a symbolic 80-kilometer walk between the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala in the south.
IRNA identified four of the five as Abolfazl Mottaqi, Amir Abbas Derham-Faroush, Ali Asghar Astaneh, and Morteza Akbari. The fifth member was not named.
"Plans have been made for their funeral and burial, and the bodies will soon be transferred to their native provinces," the state-run outlet said.
The toll marks an increase from a day earlier, when IRNA had cited an Iranian official putting the number of slain IRGC members at four.
Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said Wednesday that at least 20 of its members were killed and 32 others wounded in the joint US-Saudi strikes, which it said targeted the group's headquarters in Baghdad and five other provinces, including Diyala.
"The announced numbers of martyrs and wounded are considered a preliminary toll subject to increase or update," the PMF then stated.
CENTCOM said the same day that the US and Saudi Arabia had "conducted precision strikes in Iraq" against "Iran-aligned terrorists that the IRGC directed to attack U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure."
"U.S. and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours," CENTCOM said.
Meanwhile, the Saudi defense ministry said the strikes followed "reprehensible drone attacks carried out against the Kingdom by Iran-backed militias in Iraq," and reaffirmed "the Kingdom's determination to deter the perpetrators and its right to respond."
However, Baghdad on Thursday said there is no evidence to back Saudi claims that the attempted drone attack targeting the kingdom's oil facilities was launched from Iraq.
RELATED: Baghdad says 'no evidence' supports Saudi claim of drone attack originating in Iraq
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