Israel killed a top Iranian military advisor during an airstrike in Syria this Monday. Iran vowed a few hours later that it will take a hard revenge.
In a move that can only escalate tensions in the already chaotic Middle East, Israeli jet fighters carried out a new round of airstrikes in Syria this Monday and killed a top Iranian military advisor.
According to reports from Iranian and Syrian state media, the Israeli air attack, which was carried out in a suburb out of the Syrian capital, targeted Razi Moussavi, a senior adviser in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The top Iranian general “was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zeinabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus,” Iran’s news agency IRNA reported Monday. It also noted that Moussavi was “active in the field of providing logistical support to the axis of resistance in Syria.”
Tehran’s ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari told Iran’s Mehr news agency that the general’s house was targeted at 4:20 pm (1320 GMT) by three missiles, adding that after the attack, “the building was destroyed,” and his body was later found in the yard.” The Israeli Defense Forces’ top spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, declined to comment on the reports during a press conference on Monday evening.
Expressing condolences for Moussavi’s death, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said that the Iranian general was “one of the oldest advisers of IRGC in Syria” and close to former IRGC Quds force head, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed back in a 2020 US drone strike in Iraq.
Iran vowed a hard revenge
Several top Iranian officials immediately reacted to the reports of Moussavi’s death by Israeli airstrike and unanimously promised to take a hard revenge from Israel. It was first the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who expressed condolences for Moussavi’s death. Describing him as “one of the most experienced advisers” of Quds Force, the foreign arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iranian President said in a statement that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime.”
“Without a doubt, this action is another sign of frustration, helplessness, and incapacity of the usurping Zionist regime in the region,” Raisi also noted Monday evening.
The IRGC public relations department also issued a statement the same day and promised that Israel will “pay a price” for his death. Describing Moussavi as an “experienced military adviser” and a “comrade” of Qassem Soleimani, the IRGC said “the usurping and barbaric Zionist regime made a huge mistake and it will pay for this crime.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also came to the scene and vowed revenge. In a tweet posted Monday night, Amir-Abdollahian wrote that “Tel Aviv faces a tough countdown for what it did today.”
Last but not least, Lebanon’s Hezbollah also reacted to Moussavi’s death by Israel and said in a statement that “we consider this assassination a flagrant and shameless attack that crosses the limits.” Since the civil war in Syria broke out back in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of air attacks on targets in Syria, primarily against Iran-backed forces and Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.
Monday’s attack will surely do no good to the betterment and improvement of peace and stability in the region. This is mostly because Moussavi was the most senior Quds Force commander to be killed outside Iran since the killing of General Qasem Soleimani in 2020, and Iran has showed that it will never tolerate such hit-and-run moves by its arch enemy, Israel.
