The strike on Mousavi is the most high-profile targeted killing of an Iranian military leader since the death of Soleimani.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Iran threatened that Israel “will pay” after Sayyed Reza Mousavi, a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in Damascus on Monday allegedly by an Israeli airstrike.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gave harsh warnings to Israel in a statement broadcast on state Iranian television on Monday night.
Raisi said, “Undoubtedly, the usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime.”
He continued, “This action is another sign of frustration, helplessness, and inability of the occupying Zionist regime.”
Sayyed Reza Mousavi was a “senior advisor” in Syria and was in charge of transferring financing and logistics from Iran to Syria.
Mousavi was the closest to Qassem Soleimani the former head of the Quds Force who was killed by a US drone in January 2020.
The strike on Mousavi is the most high-profile targeted killing of an Iranian military leader since the death of Soleimani.
According to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strike focused on two sites linked to Hezbollah and Iranian-backed militias.
There were also reports that the Israeli airstrikes were targeting the area of Sayyidah Zainab in the Damascus countryside.
Witnesses said that they heard loud explosions and saw billows of smoke rising from the targeted locations.
#عاجل | قصـ ـف “إسرائيلي” استهدف منطقة الأهداف في محيط #دمشق على طريق مطار دمشق في #سوريا pic.twitter.com/DZ3ve1Qonx
— قناة القدس (@livequds) December 25, 2023
Hezbollah released a statement calling Mousavi “one of the best brothers who worked to support the Islamic resistance in Lebanon for decades.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry threatened that it “reserves the right to respond at the appropriate time and place to the assassination” of Mousavi.
The ongoing conflict between the IDF and Iranian-backed Hezbollah has created concern about a new front in the North opening while the IDF is fighting in Gaza.
In addition, the Houthis, also supported by Iran, have repeatedly fired missiles towards Eilat and are threatening commercial ships headed towards Israel.
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