Iran will avenge the killing of a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards officer in Tehran, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Monday.
“I insist on the serious pursuit (of the killers) by security officials, and I have no doubt that the blood of this great martyr will be avenged,” Raisi said.
Col. Hassan Sayad Khodayari was gunned down on Sunday outside his home in broad daylight by two unknown assailants on motorcycles who shot five bullets at point-blank range from a weapon equipped with a silencer, Israeli media reported.
Khodayari had planned kidnappings and other attacks against Israelis and Jews around the world, Israeli reports said.
the dead man was a member of the Quds Force overseas operations in Syria and Iraq.
Khodayari was also behind a recent plot to kidnap Israeli academics, businesspeople, and former defense officials abroad, the Times of Israel reported.
Raisi said “elements linked to the global arrogance can be seen in this crime,” in a reference to Israel and the U.S.
Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria.
The killing is the latest in a series of assassinations of high profile Iranians. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, also of the elite Quds force, was killed by a U.S. drone ordered by the Trump administration in January 2020. Scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the godfather of Iran’s nuclear program, was killed in November 2020 in an assassination attributed to Israel.
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