A high-ranking Iranian Revolutionary Guard general was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria, according to Tehran. General Sayyed Razi Mousavi was killed in an attack by the “Zionist regime” in a southern suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Monday. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Israel would “certainly pay for this crime.”
The Revolutionary Guard also announced retaliation. A statement said Israel would pay for the brigadier general's death.
Mousavi was one of the “most experienced advisors” to the Quds Brigade units in Syria, he said. The Al-Quds Brigade is part of the branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard responsible for foreign operations. Iran is a close ally of the Palestinian radical Islamic organization Hamas, whose unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 triggered the war in Gaza.
According to information, he was a companion of General Qassem Soleimani, killed in a US attack in Iraq in 2020. January 3 marks the fourth anniversary of the death of the commander of the Al-Quds Brigades. Iran's ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, told Iranian news agency Mehr that Mousavi's house was hit by three rockets. “The building was destroyed,” said the diplomat.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Israeli attacks on positions in the area used by Iranian groups and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. “We see this assassination as a brazen attack that crosses borders,” said Tehran-backed Hezbollah.
Iran is also a close ally of the radical Palestinian Islamic organization Hamas, whose unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 triggered the war in Gaza. Since then, tensions in the Israeli-Lebanese border area have increased significantly. There are repeated attacks between Israeli troops and Hezbollah.
Since the start of the war against Hamas, Israel has intensified air strikes in Syria. Israel declined to comment on the report on Mousavi's death on Monday; in general, the country barely comments on individual attacks in Syria. However, the Israeli government has repeatedly emphasized that it will not allow its archenemy, Iran, to expand its presence in Syria.