In this photo provided by the Islamic Republic’s news agency IRNA, family members of Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei weep over his body at his car after he was killed by two on Sunday, May 22, 2022 in Tehran, Iran attackers was shot. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a senior member of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, was killed by unknown gunmen on a motorcycle outside his home in Tehran on Sunday, state television reported. (IRNA via AP)
In this photo provided by the Islamic Republic’s news agency IRNA, family members of Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei weep over his body at his car after he was killed by two on Sunday, May 22, 2022 in Tehran, Iran attackers was shot. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a senior member of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, was killed by unknown gunmen on a motorcycle outside his home in Tehran on Sunday, state television reported. (IRNA via AP)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A senior member of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard was killed by unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle outside his home in Tehran on Sunday, state TV reported.
Though the guard gave scant details about the attack, which took place in broad daylight in the heart of the Iranian capital, the group blamed the killing on “global arrogance,” typical code for the United States and Israel.
This allegation, as well as the style of the brazen murder, raised the possibility of a link to other motorcycle killings previously attributed to Israel in Iran, such as those targeting the country’s nuclear scientists. There was no immediate admission of responsibility for the attack.
The two attackers fired five times at Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei in his unarmored Iran-made Kia Pride, state media said, just off a highly secured road where Iran’s parliament is located.
Reports only identified Khodaei as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians fighting the Islamic State extremist group in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s elite Quds Force, which oversees foreign operations.
Little information was publicly available about Khodaei as Quds officers tend to be shadowy figures conducting covert military missions in support of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and other militias in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
Tehran’s prosecutor arrived at the scene within hours of the murder to investigate and urged the police to arrest the perpetrators urgently. The probe’s speed suggested that Khodaei figured prominently in the murky fabric of the Guard’s overseas operations.
These operations have been subject to repeated Israeli airstrikes in Syria. An Israeli attack near the Syrian capital Damascus in March killed two Guardsmen, prompting Iran to retaliate by firing rockets into northern Iraq.
Security forces pursued the suspected attackers, state television reported, without giving any further details or stating a motive for the killing.
Around the same time, state media said Revolutionary Guard security forces had uncovered and arrested members of an Israeli intelligence network operating in the country, without specifying whether they had any connection to Khodaei’s assassination.