News agencies reported the killing of a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in Israel’s attack on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria on Monday, December 25. Tasnim News Agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, referred to the deceased as “Seyyed Razi Mousavi, known as Seyyed Razi, one of the experienced advisors of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria.”
Al-Mayadeen News Agency, linked to Hezbollah in Lebanon, also confirmed the killing of this “high-ranking commander of the Revolutionary Guards” as a result of an Israeli attack.
Israeli media have referred to Seyyed Razi Mousavi as the “highest-ranking member of the Revolutionary Guards after Qasim Soleimani, killed in a targeted attack.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attack on Monday was the 70th Israeli attack on Syria in this year, targeting the positions of Hezbollah in Lebanon and “Iranian paramilitary forces.”
Iranian regime’s media have reported that Mousavi has been responsible for “support and logistics of the Quds Force in Syria” since the 1990s and played a significant role in supporting the Bashar al-Assad government after the start of the Syrian civil war. Since 2011, the Iranian regime has dispatched tens of thousands of forces to Syria and spent billions of dollars from the Iranian people’s pockets to keep Bashar al-Assad in power.
The regime’s media also described Mousavi as the “support coordinator of the Resistance Front in Lebanon and Syria.”
Hossein Akbari, the Iranian regime’s ambassador to Syria has provided details about the commander’s killing.
Hossein Akbari told the regime’s state television news that Seyyed Razi Mousavi was at the embassy in Damascus until 2 p.m. on Monday, and “after finishing his work, he headed towards his home and was targeted by Israel with three missiles at 4:10 p.m. today at his residence and martyred.”
According to Akbari, this IRGC commander was alone at home when he was targeted, and his wife was working as a teacher at a school.
In response to Mousavi’s killing, the Revolutionary Guards stated in a statement that “undoubtedly, the usurping and savage Zionist regime will pay the price for this crime.”
The regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi also expressed his condolences in a message and considered Mousavi’s killing as “another sign of Israel’s frustration, helplessness, and inability.” He added that this country “will certainly pay the price for this crime.”
The regime’s officials have repeatedly stated that Israeli attacks on Syria will not go unanswered, including the Iranian Foreign Minister’s condemnation of Israel’s aerial attack on Aleppo International Airport in Syria on August 30, 2023, stating that these actions will be responded to.
Furthermore, the US Central Command in the Middle East, CENTCOM, announced early on Tuesday, December 26, that US forces conducted attacks against positions of the “terrorist” group Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq at 8:45 p.m. on Monday evening. This paramilitary group is supported by the Iranian regime.
According to CENTCOM’s statement, preliminary assessments indicate that the US airstrikes destroyed the intended facilities and likely resulted in the killing of several Kata’ib Hezbollah militants.
The US attacks came after the location of the coalition forces led by the United States in Erbil, Iraq, was targeted by a suicide drone, which injured several coalition soldiers.
