Iranian state media alleged that Israel launched an airstrike in Syria on Monday that killed a high-ranking Iranian general.
Seyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria who oversaw military coordination between Iran and Syria, was killed in the Israeli strike, according to Iranian state television, which interrupted its regularly scheduled programming to announce the death.
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The Islamic Republic News Agency report described Mousavi as one of the IRGC’s oldest advisers in Syria and alleged he had been “among those accompanying Qasem Soleimani,” who led the IRGC’s Quds Force external action unit before being killed in a 2020 drone strike ordered by then-President Donald Trump.
The Monday strike allegedly occurred in the Sayida Zeinab neighborhood of the capital Damascus. Israel has not directly commented on the strike.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that Israel targeted Mousavi after he entered a farm in the area, which they alleged is one of the offices of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
While Israel has avoided taking direct responsibility for the strike thus far, top Iranian leaders are vowing to respond.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said in a statement that Mousavi was “martyred while serving as an adviser for the resistance front, defending holy shrines in Syria as well as safeguarding Islamic ideals.” Raisi then threatened that the “Israeli regime will definitely pay for this crime.”
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Speaking from Damascus on Monday, Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, warned that the situation required a response because Mousavi was killed while serving in his capacity as a “formal military adviser.”
“[Israel] will definitely get a response to this crime at the right time and the right situation,” Akbari said.
