(Beirut) An Israeli strike which killed a major commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, in Syria on Monday left three other pro-Iranian fighters dead, an NGO said on Tuesday.
Brigadier General Razi Moussavi was targeted by “three Israeli missiles” according to Tehran, while he was in the Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood, south of Damascus, where the pro-Iranian militias who support the regime are strongly established. President Bashar al-Assad.
“Three other pro-Iranian fighters, a Syrian and two foreigners, were also killed in this strike,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), based in the United Kingdom and which has a vast network of sources in Syria.
The NGO also declared that “Israeli surface-to-surface missiles” had targeted “two positions belonging to pro-Iranian fighters near the Syrian Golan occupied by Israel” on Tuesday, without reporting any casualties.
According to the same source, pro-Iranian groups in this region have been on alert since the death of Razi Moussavi.
The Iranian official was presented by Tehran as “one of the most experienced advisors” to the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch and elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards.
The latter accused Israel and promised to avenge its death. Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi also accused Israel.
General Moussavi was, according to the Guardians, “the logistical manager of the axis of resistance” in Syria, which brings together, in addition to the power of Damascus, all of the anti-Israeli movements in the region.
On Tuesday, residents of Sayeda Zeinab indicated that pro-Iranian fighters were on alert in the area, where members of Lebanese Hezbollah are notably present.
The latter affirmed in a press release Monday evening that he considered this “assassination as a blatant attack which crosses all lines”.
Razi Mousavi is the most senior Quds Force commander to be killed outside Iran since General Qassem Soleimani, then the force’s leader and a key figure in the Islamic Republic in the Middle East, was killed in a US raid in Iraq on January 3, 2020.
Iran and Hezbollah have been helping the Syrian regime militarily since the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Syria since 2011, mainly targeting Iranian-backed militias, Hezbollah and the Syrian army.
He rarely comments on his operations in Syria, but says he wants to prevent Iran from gaining a foothold on his doorstep.