IRGC Quds Force official in charge of supplying weapons to proxies killed in Israeli strike

Behnam Shahriyari, a senior IRGC Quds Force official, was killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in western Iran, the military says.

Shahriyari headed the Quds Force’s Unit 190, responsible for the clandestine transfer of weapons to Iran’s proxy groups, especially Hezbollah.

The IDF says he was targeted in a strike while driving in a car, more than 1,000 kilometers from Israel.

Israel has been seeking to target Shahriyari since 2009.

Unit 190 has been in charge of Iran’s efforts to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, Palestinian terror groups in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen.

“As part of his role, Shahriyari was responsible for all transfers of weaponry from the Iranian regime to its proxies across the Middle East and worked for years to arm various terror organizations in order to directly advance the Iranian regime’s plan of destroying the State of Israel,” the IDF says.

“Shahriyari worked directly with the Hezbollah and Hamas terror organizations, as well as with the Houthi regime and other groups, thereby supplying numerous missiles and rockets that were fired at Israeli territory during the war,” the statement continues.

In addition to weapons, the IDF says Shahriyari “oversaw the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars annually to terror organizations through his unique connections in Turkey and Lebanon, using a network of front companies, currency exchanges, and money couriers.”

The military says his killing is a “severe blow to the ability of the terror organizations surrounding the State of Israel to rearm after having suffered heavy losses at the hands of the IDF during the war.”