Iranian General Killed In Syria By Alleged Israeli Airstrike
Iranian state-linked media claims that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps brigadier general was killed on Monday in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency identified the deceased as Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi. He was described as one of the IRGC’s longest serving advisors in Damascus, having long coordinated the relationship between the Iranian government and Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The IRGC and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi have blamed the airstrike on Israel, vowing revenge for Mousavi’s death in separate statements.
Mousavi was said to have been a close confidant of Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the IRGC’s Quds Force killed in a 2020 United States drone strike in Baghdad, with photographs of the two together published by Tasnim after Mousavi’s death. Other claims made by Iranian government-linked media include that Mousavi had resided in Syria for 30 years, and that he had his own office in the Syrian defense ministry building.
Syrian opposition activists had initially reported the destruction of an ammunition warehouse in Sayyida Zeinab on Monday following an apparent Israeli airstrike, noting multiple secondary explosions at the targeted site.
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari declined to comment on the Iranian claims during a press conference later on Monday.
Israel has conducted airstrikes in Syria since 2013, targeting facilities used by the IRGC and pro-Assad groups supported by the IRGC in response to growing Iranian presence in Assad-controlled territory after Assad requested Iranian support against the Syrian Revolution. While Israel rarely claims responsibility or comments on the strikes, they have increased in frequency following the start of Israel’s war with Hamas in October, with runways at Damascus and Aleppo’s international airports targeted.
While the Israeli airstrike campaign has killed many members of the IRGC and its proxies active in Iran over the years, killings of senior officers of Mousavi’s stature are very rare, with Reuters reporting that Iranian state-run television interrupted its regular news broadcast to announce his death.