IRGC head praises slain official Mousavi as mourners in Tehran chant ‘Death to Israel’

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Hossein Salami hails senior official Razi Mousavi as “one of the most experienced and effective IRGC commanders in the Axis of Resistance” during his funeral Thursday.

Mousavi was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria earlier this week and his body arrived in Tehran for burial earlier this morning.

Salami praises Mousavi for his key role after former Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad. Soleimani had run the Guards’ foreign operations for more than a decade.

Head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami delivers a speech during the funeral of Razi Moussavi, a senior commander in the IRGC’s Quds Force who was killed on December 25 in an alleged Israeli strike in Syria, in Tehran, on December 28, 2023. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Thousands of mourners gathered in Tehran’s central Imam Hossein Square, where they can be heard chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”

Many of the mourners are waving yellow flags imprinted with the message “I am your opponent,” a reference to Israel.