Iran has confirmed that an Israeli airstrike killed one of its senior generals in Syria early Monday, according to reports.
Brigadier General Seyyed Razi Mousavi, “a veteran advisor of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Syria,” was killed in the Zainabiyah district of the capital Damascus earlier on Monday, according to the Iranian state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The district is home to an important Shia shrine.
Mousavi was struck while entering a farm in the district, which allegedly was one of several offices for Hezbollah, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
Mousavi was a companion of Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani, the IRNA reported. Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), died Jan. 2, 2020 in a U.S. airstrike for “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel,” the White House said at the time.
The terror group Hezbollah described Mousavi as “one of the best of brothers who worked to support the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon for decades of his honorable life,” The AP reported. Mousavi’s killing “has crossed all lines,” it said, the IRNA separately noted.
Iran‘s President Ebrahim Raisi said Mousavi was “a brave and courageous person” who was “martyred” while “defending holy shrines in Syria as well as safeguarding Islamic ideals,” and that “the Israeli regime will definitely pay for this crime,” the IRNA noted. (RELATED: Israel Blames Iran For Drone Strike On Tanker Near India)
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said “this vicious act is another clear sign of the terrorist nature of the Zionist regime,” adding that Iran “reserves the right to take necessary measures and respond to his killing at the right time and in the right place,” according to the IRNA.
“The usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime,” the IRGC said, according to Reuters.
Israel reportedly declined to comment.
“I won’t comment on foreign reports, these or others in the Middle East,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in response to a reporter’s question at a nightly press conference, Reuters reported. “The Israeli military obviously has a job to protect the security interests of Israel.”