Reuters- A senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp was killed fighting Islamic State west of the Iraqi city of Mosul, Tehran-based Tasnim agency reported on Saturday.

It is the first time Iran has announced the death of a senior commander during the operations launched in October to drive the Islamist militants out of Mosul.

"Commander Shaaban Nassiri was martyred in the operation to free the west of Mosul," the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying.

(Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; editing by David Clarke)