BEIRUT (AP) – An Israeli airstrike close to Damascus on Monday killed a senior Iranian official, Iranian state media stated.
Iranian officers and allied militant teams within the area vowed to avenge the killings however didn’t instantly launch retaliatory assaults.
The killing of Seyyed Raji Mousavi, a longtime adviser to the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guards in Syria, comes amid persevering with issues that the Israel-Hamas warfare might spark regional spillovers. Iranian-backed teams in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq have launched assaults on Israel and its allies in help of Hamas.
Clashes between Hezbollah and Israel alongside the Lebanon-Israel border proceed to escalate, with each day missile exchanges, airstrikes, and artillery shelling throughout the border.
In the Red Sea, assaults by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on ships believed to be linked to Israel have disrupted commerce and prompted the launch of a U.S.-led multinational naval operation to guard delivery lanes.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq, working beneath an umbrella group referred to as the Islamic Resistance Movement of Iraq, have additionally launched greater than 100 assaults in opposition to U.S. army bases in Iraq and Syria; They declare that is retaliation for the federal government’s help for Israel.
The group claimed Monday that it attacked a U.S. army base subsequent to the business airport in Erbil, northern Iraq. A U.S. army official, talking on situation of anonymity in accordance with rules, confirmed the assault and stated there have been accidents, however gave no additional particulars.
Israeli airstrikes killed two extra generals in Syria earlier this month.
Israel attacked the Saida Zeinab neighborhood close to a Shiite Muslim shrine on Monday, in response to Iran’s state information company IRNA and the UK-based Rebel War Observatory. IRNA stated Mousavi was an in depth affiliate of General Qassim Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.
Neither the Israeli army nor Syrian state media issued a right away assertion about Monday’s assault. Israeli officers declined to remark.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi stated in a press release that Mousavi “was martyred whereas serving as an advisor to the resistance entrance, not solely defending Islamic beliefs but additionally defending Syria’s holy websites.” He threatened that “the Israeli regime will certainly pay for this crime.”
Iran’s ambassador to Syria, Hossein Akbari, condemned the killing, saying Mousavi was in Syria as an “official army advisor.”
“(Israel) will certainly reply to this crime on the proper time and in the correct circumstances,” Akbari stated from Damascus.
IRNA didn’t present different particulars in regards to the assault, however the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated Israeli forces captured Mousavi after he invaded a farm within the space, which is claimed to be one in every of a number of Hezbollah workplaces. He stated he was focused. Lebanese extremist teams, together with Iran and Russia, have performed an essential army function in protecting President Bashar al-Assad in energy all through the Syrian battle.
In a press release, Hezbollah described Mousavi as “one in every of our greatest brothers who spent many years of his honorable life working in help of the Lebanese Islamic resistance motion.”
Israel has carried out lots of of assaults in opposition to targets in government-controlled areas of war-torn Syria in recent times. It typically doesn’t authorize airstrikes on Syria. But Israel says in that case it will goal home Iranian-backed teams which have supported the Assad regime.