An Israeli airstrike outside the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday, 25 December, killed a senior adviser in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Reuters cited sources as saying Sayyed Razi Mousavi, who was one of the top IRGC commanders in Syria, was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran.
Responding to a reporter’s question at a nightly press conference, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said:
I won’t comment on foreign reports, these or others in the Middle East. The Israeli military obviously has a job to protect the security interests of Israel.
Iran’s state television interrupted its regular news broadcast to announce that Mousavi had been killed, describing him as one of the Guards’ oldest advisers in Syria.
It said he had been “among those accompanying Qassem Soleimani”, the head of the Guards’ elite Quds Force who was killed in a drone attack in Iraq in 2020 by the United States military.
Iran’s official IRNA news reported that Mousavi “was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zeinabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus.”
Iran’s ambassador in Damascus Hossein Akbari told Iranian state TV that Mousavi was posted at the embassy as a diplomat and was killed by Israeli missiles after returning home from work. He said:
[Israel] will definitely get a response to this crime at the right time and the right situation.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the assassination of Mousavi showed Israel’s “frustration and weakness”. He said:
This act is a sign of the Zionist regime’s frustration and weakness in the region for which it will certainly pay the price.
In a statement read on state TV, the IRGC said that the “usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime”.
The killing of Sayyed Razi Mousavi comes amid ongoing fears of the Israel-Hamas war sparking a regional spillover.
Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have launched attacks on Israel and its allies in support of Hamas.
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