Iranian state media announced the death of an IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) leader by an Israeli airstrike in Syria.
According to the Iranian State Media, Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a senior adviser in the IRGC was allegedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria. Mousavi was in charge of establishing an alliance between Iran and Syria’s military forces, which sent hundreds of Revolutionary Guard personnel to Syria to train militia fighters from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq to combat opponents of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s regime.
The death of the leader was confirmed by Reuters through three security sources. Iran’s official television halted regular broadcasting to declare Mousavi’s passing. “This act is a sign of the Zionist regime’s frustration and weakness in the region for which it will certainly pay the price,” said Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, for its part, called Mousavi’s death a “cowardly act” and stated that he had been instrumental in strengthening the Palestinian people and their cause, as well as the resistance in the area. Israel however has not made any official comments on Mousavi’s death.
Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq have launched attacks against Israel and its allies in support of Hamas in the Israel-Hamas war. Hezbollah and Israel are engaged in regular missile, bombing, and shelling exchanges across the border as their conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border continues to escalate. Attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen against ships they think are associated with Israel in the Red Sea have hampered trade and forced the formation of a multinational naval operation led by the US to safeguard transport lanes.
Earlier this month, two more generals were killed in Syria by Israeli strikes.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Associated Press, Israel launched an attack on Mousavi when he visited a farm believed to be used as an office by the Lebanon-based militant organization Hezbollah.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the IDF, stated last week that “Hezbollah, who as everybody knows is a proxy of Iran, is dangerously dragging Lebanon into an unnecessary war that could have potentially devastating consequences for the state of Lebanon and for the people of Lebanon.“
