The first of many.

BEIRUT (WSJ) — An Iranian soldier from Quds Force, the elite overseas branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in Iraq fighting Sunni extremists, reported news agencies affiliated with Iran’s government on Monday.

Alireza Moshajeri, referred to simply as ‘pasdar’ or ‘fighter,’ marked Iran’s first reported casualty in what is shaping up to be a Sunni-Shiite sectarian war next door, reported the news agencies.

His funeral was held in Tehran on Sunday, the coffin draped in Iran’s white, green and red flag and attended by senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, the report on Monday said.

Pictures posted on an Iranian news agency website affiliated with Iran’s government, Hengam News, showed Mr. Moshajeri as a young man in a Guards uniform. A picture of his dead body wrapped in white shroud, his face cut up and injured, was also posted.

Iran dispatched a Quds Force unit already present in Iraq to fight in the city of Tikrit and two Quds battalions were deployed from Iranian border provinces to protect Baghdad and the holy cities of Iraq, according to members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.