Israeli airstrike in Syria kills senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards member

Senior adviser for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Sayyed Razi Mousavi-Reuters

BEIRUT, Dec 25 (Reuters) - An Israeli airstrike outside the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday killed a senior adviser in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, three security sources and Iranian state media said.The sources told Reuters that the adviser, known as Sayyed Razi Mousavi, was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran."I won't comment on foreign reports, these or others in the Middle East," IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in response to a reporter's question at a nightly press conference. "The Israeli military obviously has a job to protect the security interests of Israel."

Iran's state television interrupted its regular news broadcast to announce that Mousavi had been killed, describing him as one of the Guards' oldest advisers in Syria.It said he had been "among those accompanying Qassem Soleimani", the head of the Guards' elite Quds Force who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in Iraq in 2020.Iran's ambassador in Damascus Hossein Akbari told Iranian state TV that Mousavi was posted at the embassy as a diplomat and was killed by Israeli missiles after returning home from work.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the assassination of Mousavi showed weakness on the part of Israel."This act is a sign of the Zionist regime's frustration and weakness in the region for which it will certainly pay the price," Iranian media cited Raisi as saying.The Revolutionary Guards said Israel would suffer for killing Mousavi, who held the Guards' rank of brigadier-general.

"The usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime," the Guards said in a statement read on state TV.Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told state media that: "Iran reserves the right to take necessary measures to respond to this action at the appropriate time and place."For its part, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group condemned the killing of Mousavi as a "cowardly act", saying he had played a vital role in supporting the resistance in the region as well as the Palestinian people and their cause.

There was no immediate comment from Israel's military.

Israel has for years carried out attacks against what it describes as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran's influence has grown since it backed President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that erupted in Syria in 2011.Earlier this month, Iran said Israeli strikes had killed two Revolutionary Guards members in Syria who had served as military advisers there.Iran has sent hundreds of Guards as "advisers" to help train and organise thousands of Shi'ite militia fighters from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to back the government in the Syrian conflict. Fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah have also worked closely with Iranian military commanders in Syria.

Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Raeisi: Israel will definitely pay price for assassinating senior IRGC advisor

Monday, 25 December 2023 Press TV

 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi says the Israeli regime will definitely pay the price for its criminal act of killing a senior military advisor of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Syria.

In a message on Monday, Raeisi said the vicious act of assassinating the IRGC military advisor in a missile attack in Syria was yet another sign of the usurping Zionist regime's desperation.

Seyyed Razi Mousavi, who was serving as a military advisor in Syria, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Sayyeda Zeinab neighborhood of the Syrian capital of Damascus earlier on Monday.

The president extended his condolences to Mousavi's bereaved family, his fellow comrades in the IRGC and the Iranian nation over his assassination.

He added that the brave military advisor who was one of the companions of Iran's top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was killed while "safeguarding lofty Islamic values."

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC, and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were martyred along with their companions in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.

Iran maintains an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus with the aim of helping the war-torn Arab country get rid of the foreign-backed militants who have been fighting the democratically-elected Syrian government since 2011.

Earlier in December, Israel killed two IRGC military advisors -- Mohammad Ali Ataee Shoorcheh and Panah Taqizadeh -- in an attack in Syria.

Iran maintains an advisory mission in Syria at the request of Damascus.

The IRGC announced in a statement that the two officers were martyred against the backdrop of the relentless savagery of the “fake and child-killing” Israeli regime in Gaza.

Assassination exposes Israel's terrorist nature: 

Foreign Ministry spokesman

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani strongly condemned the Israeli regime's terrorist measure to assassinate the IRGC advisor in Damascus.

He said the vicious and cowardly act was another indication of the terrorist nature of the Israeli regime.

"Since its sinister existence, the Zionist regime has committed various kinds of crimes by repeatedly and continuously violating international regulations and norms, and today it has also committed a cowardly and aggressive terrorist act," the spokesperson added.

Kan'ani emphasized that Iran reserves the right to adopt necessary strategies and give a response to the move in due time and place.

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