From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 2 hours ago, updated 6 minutes ago
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi. WANA NEWS AGENCY / Portal
General Razi Moussavi, one of the Guardians' most senior advisers in Syria, was killed “in an attack by the Zionist regime” south of Damascus, according to Iran's official Irna agency.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accused Israel of killing a leader of Iran's ideological Revolutionary Guards in an attack Monday near Damascus, Syria, and vowed that Israel “will certainly pay for it.” “This action is undoubtedly another sign of the frustration, helplessness and incompetence of the usurping Zionist regime in the region,” Ebrahim Raïssi said in a statement.
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, announced Monday the death of one of its commanders in an Israeli strike in Syria and vowed to avenge his killing. “Brigadier General Razi Mousavi, one of the Guard's most senior advisers in Syria, was killed” in an “attack by the Zionist regime several hours ago,” the Guard announced in a statement.
State television said Mousavi was attacked by “three rockets” in the Sayyida Zeinab district south of Damascus, broadcasting images of smoke likely rising from the area where the attack took place. The Guardians portrayed General Mousavi as “the logistics manager of the Axis of Resistance” (armed groups fighting against Israel, editor's note) in Syria. “There is no doubt that the Zionist regime (…) will pay for this crime,” the Guardians promised in the press release.
No comments from Israel
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which has an extensive network of sources in Syria, reported on Monday Israeli attacks on positions of Iranian groups and Lebanese Hezbollah in the Sayyida Zeinab district. Residents in the area reported hearing loud explosions and seeing columns of smoke rising from farms.
Israel rarely comments on its operations in Syria but says it wants to prevent Iran, its arch-enemy, from establishing itself on its doorstep. When asked about Mousavi's death on Monday, the Israeli army said it “does not comment on information provided by foreign media.”
The Islamic Republic is one of the main international backers of the Palestinian movement Hamas, whose attack on October 7 left around 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official figures. Israelis available. In early December, Iran announced the deaths of two Guards officers in Israeli airstrikes on Tehran-backed Hezbollah sites.
On the list of “foreign terrorist organizations”
Together with other pro-Iranian groups such as Hamas, they have been firing rockets into northern Israel every day since October 7th. The official Iranian agency IRNA added that Razi Mousavi was a “companion” of General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards, and a key figure in the Islamic Republic in the Middle East during the American invasion of Iraq in early 2020.
The Quds Force has been on the United States' list of “foreign terrorist organizations” since 2019, but Iran insists its activities abroad are an example of regional cooperation aimed at strengthening stability and blocking Western interference . Militias affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards have a strong presence in Syria, but Tehran denies sending forces to fight in Syria, saying it only has military advisers in the war-ravaged country.
A key ally of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Iran has provided him with economic, political and military support since the start of the war, which was unleashed in 2011 after suppressing anti-government demonstrations.