The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vowed on Wednesday that Israel will “pay” for killing an Iranian military advisor in Syria in strikes that hit targets north of Aleppo on Monday night.
Iranian media reported that IRGC advisor Saeed Abiyar was killed in the strikes, marking the first Iranian killed by Israel since the April 1 Israeli bombing of Iran’s consulate in Damascus.
“The child-killing Zionist criminals should know that they will pay for the innocent blood that was shed in this crime; they should wait for the response,” said IRGC chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami.
The April 1 consulate bombing, which killed a senior IRGC Quds Force commander, provoked the first-ever Iranian missile and drone attack on Israeli territory. Before April 1, Israel had a history of killing Iranian military advisors in Syria, but Iran’s response was usually very restrained if it responded at all.
The Israel consulate bombing marked a huge escalation since it was an attack on a diplomatic facility and killed a very high-level commander, so it provoked an Iranian response. The question now is if Tehran will try to hit back when lower-level Iranian officials are killed in Syria.
Israel has been bombing Syria with impunity for years and significantly ramped up the bombing after October 7. There was a lull in Israeli strikes after the April 1 consulate bombing, but now Israeli strikes on Syria have become frequent again, and the attacks always risk a major regional escalation.
Israel – and by extension, the neocons in the US – continue to try to provoke Iran into attacking Israel sufficiently hard to induce the US to attack Iran.
Looks like Summer of Love is on its way….
"Looks like Summer of Love is on its way…." Time to kiss our children goodbye?
That’ll depend on how much love there is.
Gee, if you keep on bombing people, they want to bomb back. who woulda thunk?
"…the attacks always risk a major regional escalation." IKR?
The Zionist State of Israel, has blinded itself. The Islamic Republic of Iran is not the Iran of twenty years ago, nor Hizbullah nor is Hamas. Hamas is a lightly well armed resistance group , Hizbullah is a heavily armed State Military, Iran is a manufacturing entity that produces an array of lethal weapons with super sensitive guidance systems , to continue to push as Israel is doing is suicidal.
"Hamas is a lightly well armed resistance group " How is that working out for Hamas? 10,000 + fighters dead, 20,000 + civilians dead and their cities in ruin. Great plan. And for what? One day of glory?