An Iranian volunteer who was killed in Iraq fighting alongside Iraqi forces against the Islamic State (IS) had been entangled in controversy over the post-2009 election protests and the subsequent crackdown when he was incorrectly labeled by opposition activists as a Lebanese Hezbollah commander.
Mehdi Noroozi, a Basij Forces member from Iran’s Kermanshah region who, according to the Iranian media, later “held numerous positions defending the Islamic system,” was killed Jan. 10 in Samarra, a city north of Baghdad that has been the scene of heavy fighting between IS and Iraqi forces backed by militias with close ties to Tehran.