Israeli Airstrike in Syria Kills Senior Iranian IRGC Commander

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned that the 'Israeli regime will definitely pay for this crime'

A senior member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Damascus on Monday, according to Iranian media, and Tehran is vowing that it will respond.

The IRGC commander, Seyyed Razi Mousavi, was serving as a military advisor in Syria and was once a close confidant of IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.

Israel acknowledged Mousavi was killed but did not officially take credit for the airstrike, maintaining its policy of ambiguity about its operations in Syria. For years now, Israel has been bombing Syria with impunity but rarely acknowledges individual airstrikes.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed a response to the killing of Mousavi. Raisi said the IRGC commander was “martyred while serving as an adviser for the resistance front, defending holy shrines in Syria as well as safeguarding Islamic ideals” and vowed that the “Israeli regime will definitely pay for this crime.”

Hezbollah also condemned the Israeli airstrike and said Mousavi was “one of the best of brothers who worked to support the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon for decades of his honorable life.”

Before the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, Israeli warplanes bombed Syria 25 times in 2023, and the airstrikes have escalated significantly amid the onslaught in Gaza. Earlier this month, Israeli airstrikes in Syria killed two IRGC members outside of Damascus.

The Israeli killing of Mousavi and Israel’s overall bombing campaign in Syria risks starting a major regional war. Syria is just one of many fronts that could escalate into a full-blown conflict as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire across the Israel-Lebanon border, and the Houthis are targeting Israeli-linked commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.